Lessons from the Animal Kingdom

One of the great things about animals is that they can teach humans, who have forgotten or never learned, how to behave. The other great thing is that they are edible...

But in all seriousness, pets and kids go together like peanut butter and jelly. If you don't provide your child with pets they will broach the subject themselves. After much deliberation between you and your significant other, priest, bartender, hairdresser, etc. you will decide that young Timmy is [or isn't] the perfect age for a pet. The easy part is over. Now you have to go to the pet store.

If I were you, I wouldn't bring my child anywhere near the pet store. Think about when your rational adult mind sees puppies behind glass or kittens milling around, do you ever want to leave the store with less than 10 new friends? Now insert a five year old version of yourself and you can understand why it might be best to leave your child at home. Of course, it might be equally important to teach your child that he/she cannot have whatever they want all the time. You might save this lesson until you are dealing with less cute subject matter. Once you arrive at the pet store, the question becomes what animal to get. If you are a reader of this blog your child is probably under six. While puppies and kittens, or their full size equivalents, make fine pets, you might want to get a smaller animal, maybe one that resides in a cage until your child is older. Sometimes kids will not know how to interact with a large pet and even if they do, if the pet is younger or rambunctious, you will have to closely watch child/pet interactions. The other downside is that your child can only kind of take care of a dog or a cat and learn that kind of responsibility.

For a child under six the best pets are smaller: hamster, gerbil, lizard, frog, birds, fish. There is a better chance of the animal and your child staying safe with an animal that is this size and they can take part in the responsibility of caring for their pet. Learning to nurture is one of the great things pets teach children. Here are some others:

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/a-living-education-five-things-pets-teach-children/page1.aspx