Owning a pet is a lot of work and a huge responsibility. It always requires significant time and attention commitment to raise a healthy and happy furry friend and plenty of responsibility to take good care of them. Knowing how busy children are in school, parents often prefer not to have pets at home. Surveys reveal that only 1 in 6 parents would let their kids get a pet. Others are firmly against this due to a number of reasons—62% think it will be a hassle, 48% are concerned about the cost, and 43% believe that kids won’t be responsible enough to take care of their pets.
Although many parents are against getting pets for their kids, and they have some weighty reasons for that, they often miss out of sight the huge benefits their children can gain from owning a pet. Of course, owning and taking care of a pet is hard to combine with studying, regardless of the academic level. However, students can always rely on a top essay writing service DoMyEssay to write my term paper and delegate their homework to experts when they need more free time for their furry friends. Still, many kids are indeed not responsible enough to provide proper care for their pets. But the truth is that they are learning how to be responsible in the process.
There are many benefits of owning a pet in childhood, as well as plenty of things that kids can learn from it. In this article, an expert will tell us about the top nine life lessons that children can learn from their furry friends.
Patience
In most cases, pets take their time and can’t be rushed. They take their time to get trained. Also, they take time on walks and during other activities. At first glance, in our rushed world, how slow pets can sometimes be might seem like a huge downside. But the truth is that this is one of the lessons they teach us—slowing down, taking our time to do something, and being patient. All these skills can be valuable for kids in school and life in general.
Kindness
Most animals treat children with extra care, recognizing that they are small and might make mistakes unconsciously. Seeing this kindness in action teaches kids how to be kind too. As a result, children who own pets develop the same sense of compassion, care, and kindness toward their furry friends. Eventually, they are also likely to translate this kindness to people.
Responsibility
Most children see animals as cute creatures that entertain and love humans. However, only until they own their own pets. When kids become pet owners, they start learning that they are much more than that. They learn that animals are full-fledged living beings that require attention, care, feeding, cleaning, exercise, and affection. Realizing this, seeing how adults provide all these things for the family pet and getting involved in this process themselves, children start developing a sense of responsibility. And this is probably one of the most important lessons taught by pets.
Love and Trust
When a pet arrives home, it becomes a real family member. That is, all other family members have to open their hearts to welcome their furry friend. And if they do this, an animal will offer its unconditional love in return. This is a great way to demonstrate to children what love and trust look like in any relationship. After learning this lesson, kids will find it easier to build trust with other people too.
Respect
When a pet gets trained, it learns to respect the owner and obey their commands. At the same time, owners learn to respect their pet’s space and not disturb them when they are sleeping, eating, etc. This is a great demonstration of what mutual respect looks like in relationships. Thus, by owning a pet, kids learn a crucial life lesson about respecting others.
Loyalty
With trust and respect also comes loyalty. And there is no secret that pets are a great demonstration of loyalty to their owners. Thus, by owning a pet, children also learn what loyalty means. First, they learn how to show loyalty to their beloved pet in return, and later they will also learn how to show loyalty to their family and friends.
Opening Up
Being able to open up to others and socialize is one of the most important life skills for every person. However, we have to admit that acquiring and honing these skills can be tough, especially for children who now see a lot of online and face-to-face bullying that makes them get more closed. However, pets can teach kids how to open up more.
First of all, when a pet appears in the house for the first time, kids have to open up and show unconditional love and trust to accept a new family member. This is the first lesson about opening up. Later, a pet can also teach kids how to open up to people. There is no secret that animals are an amazing ice breaker in social settings. Taking their pets on walks or telling others about them will make kids receive more attention and interest from their peers. As a result, they will learn to open up and develop stronger social skills.
Resilience
Owning a pet always holds many challenges. From getting into the habit of taking care of someone to spending months training your furry friends—all these processes take time and require commitment. Obviously, not everything will work out from the first attempt, and this is another lesson that animals can teach a child. Taking care of and training their pets will teach kids to be resilient and not give up in the face of any challenges. According to an expert academic writer from one of the top assignment services, this skill is crucial for success in school, as well as in the future career and life.
Death and Coping With Loss
Without any doubt, owning a pet gives kids plenty of happy moments and memories. But the unfortunate truth is that animals age and die. No matter how much children love and take care of their pets, eventually, they will leave them. Losing a family member will be tough and painful. Still, it’s another important life lesson that kids will learn. The loss of their beloved pet will teach kids about death and grief. At the same time, it will teach them how to cope with loss and treasure every memory they have with their loved ones.
The Bottom Line
Due to many fears and concerns, it can be rather hard to let a child own a pet. This is natural. However, after reading this article, you know that pets teach kids a variety of crucial life lessons and help them develop plenty of essential skills. So the benefits your child gains from owning a furry friend outweigh all the potential risks.
