There is one thing to adopt or buy a pet, but it’s a whole other ball game when it comes to looking after it. One of the best things you can do for your children, is to adopt a pet for them while both, them and your children are in their younger ages, so they can grow up together.
There is an assortment of benefits that are part of the package when adopting a pet within a family with kids, this article looks at a few of these below as well as how to make your adopted kitten feel at home.
Benefits of Having Your Kids Grow Up with Pets
Most children love and enjoy the company of pets, and without knowing it they can pick up a lot of good habits being around them. We look at a few below:
They Can Help with Learning. If you ever wander into your child’s room when they are meant to be sleeping you will often find them reading to their pets and playing with them. One of the best advantages of having a feline around the house is it enhances their learning abilities. Kids love to read to their pets, show them pictures of different items, and recite the alphabet to them as well.
It is a known fact that almost 90% of children in the USA have grown up with pets. According to Mary Renck Jalongo, PhD, and the author of a famous book titles ‘The World of Children and Their Companion Animals’ which can be found on most online bookstores, there is mention of evidence of when taking therapy dogs into schools, that it enhances children’s learning abilities and development.
This is just in the school environment but experts have seen this in the home environments as well. Not only does it help kids but also adults – it has been seen to help reduce stress levels in parents of children too.
They Teach Them How to Be Caring. Another really beneficial and often overlooked benefit’s is that when kids grow up with their pets and parents give them the responsibility of looking after them, it teaches them to be more caring adults later in life.
Being a nurturing person usually comes with [practice, and not everyone is born with this trait. Having pets around the house like kittens, and puppies, helps bring out the much-needed caring side of young children. They learn to look after them, bath them, feed them nutritious meals: https://www.holistapet.com/cat-breed-guide/ and play with them when needed. These traits rub off on siblings who then adapt a caring nature towards their own younger brothers and sisters.
Sometimes parents are too busy to teach their children good traits continuously, and having cats around the house will bring out the best in them, when mom and dad are not at home. It was also found that in studies done on kids and pets, the children ended up being 10.3% more caring and spending more time in care homes, then ones who did not have pets.
Other Well-Known Benefits:
- It keeps kids healthy and help protect them from certain illnesses. Pediatricians often find that having more pets reduces the risk of kids getting different allergies and their immune systems gets stronger too.
- Pets build a bond between the family. They help families to grow closer and stronger in time. Usually when activities take place in the home, the pet is often the focus of these and everyone gets to play with them. Most families take turns taking the cat outside or the dog for a walk. This shared time with pets often leads to more loving family relationships.
- Helps kids be more active. We saved the best for last. Of course, kids will be more active if parents encourage them to play with their cats at least once or twice a day. It’s win-win for both the cat and the kids.
Making Your Adopted Kitten Feel At home
Now onto the adopting and bringing them home part, and learning how to be more responsible as a kid who has a kitten. As with all pets there are certain things you need to do to make sure your feline young one, lives long and is happy and healthy. We look at the important ones below.
When you bring a new kitten home for the first time, you should have ideally bought everything it needs to make it feel comfortable and welcome. Remember kittens have feelings too, and not only that, make sure you’ve had a word with your kids before hand so they can be prepared too.
Did you know cats can hear higher frequencies of noise in comparison to humans and dogs? Perhaps letting your young ones know not to scream and shout around him is key, so that the little guy doesn’t get scared or run ff somewhere.
Secondly, provide a safe space for him to be. Ideally a small room or closet with his bed and toys would be amazing, but if you don’t have that choose a corner in the house with the least foot traffic. This encourages kittens to become more comfortable sooner and feel at home.
When you bring them home, don’t force them to play with the children or to go anywhere. Set the pet carrier in the room allocated to it and leave them to come out of it when they feel the time is right. They have a tendency of hiding or shying away initially but will warm up to the space soon enough.
Once the kitten get accustomed to his new abode, he will be a happy camper around your kids in no time!