What Your Pet Can Teach Your Child

People get pets for a number of reasons — for companionship, for protection, to add joy and love to your home, or to teach children a lesson in responsibility. When it comes to lessons, however, most people fail to stop and think about what pets might have to teach them. Today Fetch Pet Care blog takes time out to highlight the many ways in which a pet can enrich the life of a child. Among those lessons are communication, empathy, resilience to change, and even confidence:

Children go through life under constant evaluation. They are rated by their behavior, grades and athletic performance. This is especially true of middle school children. Pets have no such expectations; they’re delighted that the child is with them. Pets give children the sense of unconditional acceptance.

The article references a recent study exploring relationships children and their pets. The study, performed by a child psychologist, found that children who owned dogs possessed astonishingly higher levels of self-esteem and empathy than others of their own age, due perhaps in no small part to the unconditional love a pet provides.

Bierer’s conclusions support the growing body of evidence that shows dog ownership has “statistically significant” impact on self-esteem and sensitivity toward others. He noted that teachers, parents and other children have expectations for a child to fulfill. A pet has no such measures of success or failure; acceptance is total, which provides a sense of self worth.

Of course, the article stresses that these are not reasons to run out and purchase a pet before your child (or home or family for that matter) is ready. But when the time is right and your child has found his or her perfect pet, it will be a beautiful thing.