How Can Children Benefit From Pet Parenting?

In recent times, raising a pet has almost become fashionable. However, these furry pets can bring some much benefits into our lives that we didn’t expect.

Today many kids are fortunate to grow up with pets in the house, but have you questioned how children can benefit from pet parenting? If not! Maybe it is time to consider giving importance to raising a pet which could bring benefits to your family but especially to your child.

Check out these four benefits your child can benefit from pet parenting:

Nurturing: Having a pet at home can encourage your child to be nurturing. Gail F. Melson, tells a parenting magazine that “Nurturing isn't a quality that suddenly appears in adulthood when we need it," she says. "And you don't learn to nurture because you were nurtured as a child. People need a way to practice being caregivers when they're young."

Improves self-esteem and loneliness: Pet parenting can have several emotional health benefits, but it especially improves self-esteem and loneliness, as per a publication released by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) on Companion Animals and Child/Adolescent Development: A Systematic Review of the Evidence.

Bring the family together: Pets become center of attention for the family. Focusing on doing activities around pets as a family brings families together. It also improves relationships with family members that one does not have strong relationships with.

Comforter: Melson told the parenting magazine that kids who grow up around pets are less anxious and withdrawn. She says, “Kids who get support from their animal companions were rated by their parents as less anxious and withdrawn.”

(Gail F. Melson is a Ph.D., professor emeritus of developmental studies at Purdue University in Indiana and the author of Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children)