The love between a child and their pet is an unmatched, cherished friendship that plays a significant role in the child’s upbringing. Pets serve as your child’s unconditional best friend, live-in playmate, and cuddle buddy. However, pets also bring a great deal of lessons to your child in terms of responsibility and commitment. If you’re considering introducing pet-care into your child’s routine, here’s everything you need to know to get you started.
Helping Your Child Learn About Responsibility
There are many responsibilities involved with owning a pet. From daily feedings to emotional and physical stimulation, pets require a great deal of care to remain happy, healthy, and comfortable. That’s why pets provide an excellent teaching opportunity for parents, as they serve as a tool to help your child learn about responsibility. We recommend developing a daily and weekly pet-care routine that highlights all that goes into owning a pet and sharing it with your child. Depending on your child’s age and maturity level, you may gradually begin introducing these pet-related chores to their routines to show them the value of responsibility and commitment.
Determining Pet-Care Chores Based on Your Child’s Age
Kid-friendly pet-care is not universal. Some tasks are not suited for younger children, as they are not strong enough or mentally equipped to understand potential hazards involved with the task at hand. As such, it’s important to determine pet-care chores based on your child’s age, maturity, and disposition. For younger children, assisting their guardian with pet-care needs, watching and learning as their parent or caregiver takes on the task is beneficial as they begin to get a feel for what will be expected of them when they are old enough to handle the job alone. For older children who may be better suited to handle pet-care independently, you may consider asking them to take on the following:
- Measuring out meals and cleaning food bowls
- Assisting with walking the dog
- Cleaning the cat litter or dog waste in the yard
- Helping with bath time
- Practicing training and commands
Establish an Organized Routine
Children and pets both thrive when they have an organized routine to follow. Children can get bored quickly if they do not have set tasks mapped out for them. As such, we recommend creating a chart that highlights each family member’s pet-related duty. This helps children stay committed to their given task and teaches them about commitment.
Explore more kid-friendly pet-related chores by contacting your trusted veterinarian for more information today.