Having a pet can be great for all the family, and even help with children's development. So, if you're on the fence about buying your child his or her first pet, maybe this article can help! First things first, keeping pets could help your child to grow into the kind and caring adult you hope them to be. Children who have grown up around animals have been found to be more emotionally intelligent and compassionate. According to The Waltham Book of Human-Animal Interaction, having pets in the house can teach children how to care for a dependent animal from a young age. This could be because parents and children often share in the responsibility and caring involved.
From as young as three years old, kids can be taught to stroke an animal carefully and gently, and even be able to take a bowl of food and set it on the floor for the pet. Spending a lot of time playing with pets, as well as talking to them and sometimes reading to them, can help children with their cognitive development. This helps them to grasp language and enhance their verbal skills. Looking after pets is also a great way of helping your child to understand the life cycle, which can greatly benefit them later in life. Birth and death - and everything in between - can be difficult subjects to teach children, and while it can be confusing and painful, they can also be great learning experiences. The way in which parents and other adults around children deal with these situations will influence how children cope with them in general throughout their lives. And it's important for these adults to show kids that it's alright to have feelings about the events, as well as helping them to cope with whatever feelings they might have.
As the child grows older, giving them tasks to look after their pets, such as walking or feeding them, can help build their self-esteem. It will also give them a sense of accomplishment, and help them to feel independent and competent. And did you know that pets can offer children social support? According to research from Cambridge University, children are more likely to confide in their pet than their siblings or friends, especially if they're going through a tough time. Matt Cassels, who analysed the research, said that it might be because they feel their pets aren't judging them. Girls were seen to especially benefit from having pet dogs, with them helping to encourage social behaviour. "These children not only turn to their pets for support when faced with adversity, they do so even more than they turn to their siblings," Mr Cassels explained. "This is even though they know their pets don't actually understand what they're saying." Mr Cassels said that too little attention has been paid to the relationship between children and animals, but that it hadn't occurred to him to investigate this relationship sooner. There has also been an overall lack of evaluation on how important our pets to us, even though most people consider their pets as part of their family.
Recent research from Japan's University of Tokyo and Duke University in the US has found that people love their pet as much, and in the same ways as, their children. Duke senior researcher Dr Evan MacLean explained that it's only been in the last couple of thousand years that dogs have been kept as pets. In that time, they have become attuned to our social cues the same way young children are. "Our relationships with dogs are very much like parent-child relationships," he added. "We respond to our dogs quite like human children." On top of all this, owning pets has been shown to make people generally more happy and comfortable. So, if there was any doubt when you started reading this, perhaps now you know the whole range of benefits that having a pet can do for your children and yourself. Even if you're worried about allergies, why not try out fish, or maybe a tortoise? What about a parrot? The possibilities are endless, as are the rewards.
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