We have a dog and a cat right now, and a 6 month old daughter.
I never had pets growing up, and I feel like I missed out on the relationship a lot of kids have with their pets -- most of my friends growing up had either a dog or a cat and they really were wonderful friends and companions.
I can already see the bond that is developing between my daughter and the pets we have. If she's upset for some reason, both the dog and the cat will run over to try and see what's wrong or comfort her. She seems to be soothed a lot by their presence too - when they are in her line of sight her face brightens up so much!
Did you have a pet as a child? If you have kids now, do they have a pet as a companion? What is their relationship dynamic like?
I'm in the same boat as you in that I didn't have pets as a youngster. Looking back I think it did me more harm than good as I was petrified of animals until I was a teenager. I'm still nervous around dogs and birds now, though have found myself at ease with almost everything else.
My little boy has only had hamsters so far- he is 3- and when we move house in a couple of weeks I am considering getting a cat. He is always so fascinated by cats in our current area and it has taught him to be gentle and quiet around them so he can pet them.
Obviously it is each family to their own, but I personally feel that not having a pet around the house when I was younger meant I missed out on something, and that isn't what I want for my son!
(06-28-2015, 06:00 AM)Natalie89 Wrote: I'm in the same boat as you in that I didn't have pets as a youngster. Looking back I think it did me more harm than good as I was petrified of animals until I was a teenager. I'm still nervous around dogs and birds now, though have found myself at ease with almost everything else.
My little boy has only had hamsters so far- he is 3- and when we move house in a couple of weeks I am considering getting a cat. He is always so fascinated by cats in our current area and it has taught him to be gentle and quiet around them so he can pet them.
Obviously it is each family to their own, but I personally feel that not having a pet around the house when I was younger meant I missed out on something, and that isn't what I want for my son!
I definitely hear where you are coming from about that feeling of missing out on something. I also liked what you said about your son learning to be gentle and quiet so that he is allowed to pet cats. I feel like pets also teach kids SO much about responsibility and about treating others with respect and kindness. I think it's a good thing all around, really!
You'll have to keep us posted if you do end up getting a cat - and hopefully share some pictures with us too!
Now I have two daughters (8 and 11) and we have two dogs, a cat and a bearded dragon. Our dogs are more bonded to the younger of the two girls. I believe it is because of her energy being so close to theirs haha! Our cat is bonded with my older daughter. She is more calm and will just sit and "have conversations" with Gucci, they just like to be together.
I do think it is something special, for sure.
Growing up we always had pets. We had dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, ducks and even a pig. We always bonded with our animals. That is why I am such a huge animal lover now. My children always had cats growing up and fish. Hard to bond with a fish though but it was something for them to take care of and taught them responsibility. I have two cats now and one of them is really close with my grand daughter. He follows her everywhere and sleeps with her. It is too cute.
I agree with all of you.
They will be the best friends. There is no doubt.
Just do as you want to do. Buy a pet and your daughter will be happy with it!
I've always had a pet when I was a kid. I try to make sure that my children have the same experiences that I had. We do have a dog now, and they have had other things. They had rabbits, cats, and other pets. My older daughter is an animal lover. We move around a lot, so sometimes we have to get rid of the pet, but we have had our dog for a while now, and he is a part of this family as much as anybody else. It is less likely that we will get rid of him like that.
I had tons of pets throughout my childhood, but the relationships I had with my dogs had the most meaning. There is something about a child's relationship with their dog that shines bright. My cats and I were fairly close, but they didn't like to snuggle nearly as much as my puppies did. I did love my cats, though.
I was fortunate enough to grow up with my pet Rottweiler as a child. He was always there to play with, lend a comforting back pillow, and lick my tears away. I think it's a great way for a child to build sympathy and love towards animals.
I personally grew up with pets and I was introduced to life with different kinds of animals since I was pretty young. My step-dad owns a farm so I got used to horses and other big animals. I noticed that animals do make a difference and help out kids when they're growing up. They can give support for a child if something is wrong and if they're at that age to take care of animals by themselves, they can let stress out with doing their tasks. Also, if parents are away from home a lot kids can get company from their pets. They also teach how to be responsible and how to be patient. You can't just think that an animal approaches you just like that, no. You need to earn its trust and that's what pets teach for kids.
I grew up with pets and this is the genesis of my affinity for them. My first pet was a bird, actually a hen. Nowadays, many homes have pets. In a good number of cases, it is out of necessity to keep tabs on rodents and strangers while many others keep them for companionship. Children have a love hate relationship with pets. One moment they snuggle up to them while the next moment, they are throwing barbs at them. Young boys especially should be taught to treat pets humanely especially those that come from other homes.
When we have house guests, it is the kids that usually gets the respect of our dogs faster. In 5 minutes time inside our house, our dogs would be comfortable with kids and adults would take more than 10 minutes for our dogs to be pacified.
However, we are wondering why one of our dogs, the female Barbie, is obviously hating the neighborhood kids. Just the mere sound of the children's voices, Barbie would go on a rampage as if she wanted to get out in the streets to pursue the children. That is a puzzle to us.
My pets back then were given as gifts but my parents gave them away because they were too much trouble. My dog Clio now is the first actual pet that I get to keep since I'm an adult now. My son loves her and I'm glad because the other dog, Sandy, that I'm taking care of for my aunt is not used to kids and she would always bark at my son and sometimes threaten a bite if he's in any way moving a lot because he's playing. She would even get upset for no apparent reason at all. Maybe she just gets stressed. Clio loves my son Ian as well and she would jump at him and try to lick him once we got home.
