Benefits of Pets for Kids: Responsibility, Empathy, and Anger Management

When we think about our early childhood, chances are that we can all remember two types of kids, in regards to the way they behaved towards animals. The first group included children who absolutely loved animals, even if some of them were fearful of these creatures at first. The second group were the children who – let’s put it lightly – didn’t like animals, regardless of that if they feared them or not.

It’s only natural that these two types of kids grew up to be completely different people, in many aspects and facets. Long story short, the children who had pets from an early age benefited from this in many ways. In this article, we’re going to try to present to you some of the advantages and perks of pets for kids. And it’s not only about the merits that show later in life – children who are raised in pet-owning families also show these signs of improvement (compared to the peers who don’t own pets) throughout their development years.

Children Who Were Raised in Pet-Owning Families Have a Better Sense of Responsibility

One of the first things that we’d like to point out when it comes to the benefits of pets for kids is that these children have a better sense of responsibility than their peers who grew up in families who didn’t own pets. This is completely understandable and shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

Owning a pet teaches you to look after another living being, which is extremely important. You start to realize from a young age that there are consequences for your actions. If you don’t look after your pet properly, chances are that the animal won’t exactly thrive in these conditions. This simple fact prepares children and teaches them to be responsible for others. When someone depends on you as the pet animal depends on us, it creates a sense of urgency to take care of it properly.

And it’s not just that children are taught how to be responsible for other living beings, but they also develop a better understanding of how the link between cause and effect works. This translates to other realms of life, as well: children get better at school, for instance, knowing that they need to dedicate their time to something in order to get better and continue to move forward in life. The dog onesies can be used to prevent dog hair when the kids are playing with your dog.

There’s a Strong Correlation Between Increased Empathy Levels and Owning Pets

Arguably the greatest benefit of pets for kids is an increased empathy level in children who own pets. This is extremely important, especially in this day and age when it seems that there’s a growing intolerance among people. Luckily, there are some pretty effective ’cures’ and remedies for these conditions, and taking care of a pet from an early age impacts this hugely.

It’s already indicated in many reports that those children who were cruel towards animals in their childhood have a better chance of showing signs of sociopathic behaviors later in life. One possible way to prevent this could include making these children care for an animal. It goes without saying that this should be closely monitored by an adult.

It’s advisable to get these children an animal that most people love, like dogs, for example. That particular child should be taught about proper ways on how to care for a dog: to feed, clean, and walk the animal regularly, to read specialized books or blogs, like Totally Goldens, for instance, and to slowly establish a bond with the animal. This can potentially lead to an increased level of empathy in a child, which is something that should be extremely valued.

Children Who Own Pets are Emotionally More Stable and Control Their Anger Better

While we’re on the subject of emotions, there’s also a strong correlation between emotional stability and owning a pet. It seems like loving and caring for an animal can truly help not only the individual but the society in general, as well.

Children who owned pets from an early age are also better at controlling their anger. We’ve already indicated that the traces of sociopathic behavior can be found in children who abused animals, but it’s also important to note that these children also have trouble managing their anger. And even when they’re not abusing animals, they often show signs of emotional instability. It should be more than clear by now that one of the ways to help those children is by making them care for another living creature.

The Bottom Line

In this article, we’ve tried to show you some of the benefits of pets for kids. Although more research needs to be done on this particular subject, we can safely conclude that there’s a strong correlation between emotional stability and owning a pet. Children who grew up caring for an animal have a better sense of responsibility, are more empathetic in general and are less likely to suffer from emotional problems later in life.