![Parenting With Pets, the Magic of Raising Children With Pets [Revised, Second Edition] - Margaret Hevel](/cover_697458.jpg "Parenting With Pets, the Magic of Raising Children With Pets [Revised, Second Edition] - Margaret Hevel")
fear by creating a safe environment for both the child and the pet as they become acquainted. Since all animals need time to adjust to their new surroundings, we can explain the need to keep a quiet voice and to move slowly. This becomes a wonderful opportunity for us to explain about considering someone else’s feelings. By asking our children to consider how frightening this experience must be for their pet, we exemplify empathy and sensitivity. In addition, a relaxed animal is more likely to respond in a positive fashion to the child’s overtures.
Older children may lose interest after finally getting the longed-for pet. According to Dr. Marty Becker in his book, Healing Power of Pets, around ninety-nine percent of children say that they want a pet. That doesn’t mean that ninety-nine percent of children want the unpleasant task of picking up dog poop, changing the litter box, or cleaning a bird or rodent cage. However, in order for children to gain the full benefits associated with animals, they must do these chores. Caring for the needs of an animal allows a child to give something the animal cannot attain on its own. By providing their animal with food, water, and clean housing, children discover that they are needed and relied upon in a way they most likely have not experienced before. Responsibility is a natural outcome of the realization that, in this world, each person is necessary and uniquely important.
As is true with anything in life, children learn that the more they put into their relationship with their pet, the more they will get in return. Many parents believe that the love from their family pet is as emotionally supportive as the love provided by other family members. For a child to reap the most benefit from the companion-animal experience, there must be a relationship between the two. With this in mind, those animals that more naturally interact with and elicit a caring response from the child will be the most effective pets. Although some children may feel affection toward amphibians or reptiles, most humans naturally gravitate to those animals with the “cuddle factor.”
With our guidance, children will learn that although different animals need to be handled in different ways, all pets, whether of fur, fin, or feather, must be treated with kindness and respect. Although a child may be sweet and loving, he or she will not know instinctively the proper way to handle the new non-human friend. As parents, an element of the undertaking we accept when we adopted a family pet is the responsibility of keeping both the pet and the child safe. This includes both physical and mental safety. Part of our purpose in adding a pet to our family is to involve our children in the joyous connection that animals can provide. This experience will not be enjoyable, however, if we don’t take the time to start the relationship between all family members on a positive note. Children, who learn to care for an animal with kindness and patience, learn invaluable lessons in how to treat people as well.
Parents should serve as role models. A family pet gives parents a chance to demonstrate the proper care and feeding of an animal and, more important, the opportunity to show how to love and give praise. Witnessing and participating in this healthy relationship can help children with the development of nonverbal communication, compassion and empathy.
There will be frustrating times with the addition of a pet. However, if a parent is willing to continue working to build a relationship, the advantages of having a pet far outweigh the irritating moments. Many times these upsets are marvelous teaching opportunities if we only take the time to look at the situation.
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