How Pets Can Have a Positive Impact on Your Child’s Development

How Pets Can Have a Positive Impact on Your Child’s Development 

Pets have become more than companions; they have become a part of our live and without a doubt, part of our families as well. When you have children it’s likely at one point of another you will hear those sometimes dreaded words “can we keep him mommy??? Please???” Often animals seem to find us, and we face the decision of whether or not to make a pet a part of your family. It takes hard work and communication to ensure everyone is on board and prepared for the responsibility. As a family, parental involvement and control, communication and proper planning are crucial in the decision for choosing and owning a pet. When a child learns to take care of a pet, they are learning to offer respect to another living thing. A child learns to treat living things kindly, and they learn the importance of patience. By gaining these valuable tools from caring for pets, child can then mirror these positive traits in dealing with people as well.

The first step that needs to be tackled is deciding what kind of pet fits best with your family. You need to make sure the pet you choose is right for the lifestyle of your family. It is also important that your child and family have has a pet that they can conceivable care for. You want to ensure that you are researching whether or not the pet you are interested is aggressive as aggressive animals should not be around children. Pets that are exotic can typically be very difficult to care for.

When a child and a pet develop a relationship the outcomes that are created from that relationship will in turn be passed to human relationships. A child will often talk to their pets and tell them secrets and that is very healthy for children. Through the lifecycle of a pet a child could learn about what happens from birth to death. As a child grows closer to a pet, they have a sense of responsibility from caring for the pet.

When it comes to caring for a pet, your child will develop the social skills and psychological benefits that will give them many advantages in life. When a child develops a relationship with a pet, they can start to recognize positive feeling which can encourage self-esteem and self-confidence. When a child starts to work with and trust a pet, they can learn better non-verbal skills, as well as developing a better sense of compassion and empathy. 

Although a child develops many different positive characteristics from owning a pet, parental or adult supervision should be present while starting this relationship and throughout the process. Although a child might seem old enough to care of a pet, a parent should be present for the relationship between the pet for debriefing, teaching and supervision. Children can often lose patience and adult supervision should be present to ensure the children are not being aggressive, or forceful toward the animal. When a family owns a pet the parent or adults should be setting the example. Children will learn to model the behavior they see in the adults. Owning a pet can be very rewarding as well as beneficial to your children.

Emily Elizabeth is a family, health and beauty blogger. She has two wonderful dogs that enrich her life. She was also lucky enough to grow up learning responsibility through horse ownership and hopes to continue the tradition when she begins a family of her own. She also takes an interest in alternative medical therapies like self hypnosis.