Pets are awesome. Period. No matter what kind of pet you choose, caring for and loving a pet is a great healthy habit for the whole family. In study after study, it has been proven that people with pets live longer and have fewer health issues...and smile more.
For this Friday Fit Club, go grab that pet and thank them. Give them a cuddle, a little wave from the other side of the tank, to say thanks...and talk about all of the ways pets are great with your kids.
-- They teach us compassion. When you care another person or animal you are being compassionate, you learn how it good it feels to help and think about and do things for someone other than yourself. A key thing for kids to learn.
-- They give us joy, pure fun, free happiness. Why do you think those cat videos are so popular on You Tube? They make us smile and giggle. Imagine that on a 24-7 basis.
-- They offer unconditional love. Sure, you give your kids that, but sometimes it is hard for them to understand this concept. When Puggly meets your child at the door every day afterschool, tail a wagging, that can be a great source of strength that she isn't alone, that no matter what happened that day at school, life is still pretty good.
-- They teach responsibility. Whether it is planning for a trip and who will take care of MeowMeow or finding a dogwalker or getting a new chew toy for Buster, pets need help...and when you take on that help, you are being responsible. Talk about a great life lesson for kids to see and practice daily.
Share your best pet and kid story!
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I don't really know what kind of story to share but my girls adore my dogs and my dogs adore my girls. Bailey and Roxie (dogs) let the girls do pretty much whatever they want to them. Of course we don't let the girls do whatever but the dogs are so patient with them. Both of the older girls have used the dogs as ponies, step stools, and pillows and they just let them. :)
My dd loves our pets, but I think my best pet/kid story was when my dd was a newborn. I was a single mom, and had 3 cats at the time. My dd was in a little bouncy chair on the floor and she was napping. I went outside to the car to get something and was only gone a few seconds and could hear my oldest cat meowing very loudly by the backdoor so I grabbed what I needed and went back in the house to hear my dd lightly crying (like she was just waking up) but my cat wanted to make sure I knew something was wrong with the baby lol..
One of our cats, Boots is protective of my youngest son. One day when we were outside out front, there was someone walking by with a dog on a leash. My son is timid around dogs for now and the dog made a lunge towards my son and the cat stepped in and boxed that dog right on the nose and made it yelp. Yay! Go Boots! LOL
Our sons grew up with cats. They did learn about caring for animals and compassion.
The 1st time my daughter who was around 10 months met my parent's cat she screamed lol. Not cried screamed. She likes cats now but that was hysterical.
Right now we have 5 kittens and they are so cute and funny to watch run around and play. It is making getting ready to give them away hard ...but there is no way Im going to be a 6 cat family!!
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- HeatherNYC
on May. 18, 2012 at 12:00 AM