the benefits of combining pets and kids Pets
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Pets play such an incredible role in children’s lives. Studies show that children raised with pets show many benefits. Pets teach life lessons that stay into adulthood and have a monumental impact in a child’s development.
The experts at North Shore Animal League America would like to express just how beneficial pets can be for children; and how it is never too late to invite a pet into your life.
The Benefits of Children Owning a Pet• Caring for a pet can improve a child’s social skills, self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Learning how to positively treat a pet is likely to lead to treating people kindly and respectfully.
• Caring for a pet helps children to develop compassion, empathy and non-verbal communication skills.
• Pets serve as an expressive outlet for children and act as their most trusted confidants.
• Pets teach life lessons such as love, loyalty, trust, affection, patience, responsibility, respect for nature and living things, illness and death.
• Pets provide a great source of physical and mental activity.
• Pets provide wonderful company for children that do not have siblings.
Things to Remember• Children under the age of 10 should not be left unattended with a pet.
• Parents make the best role models and children will learn by observing their behavior.
• It is important for parents to make sure that their children are properly caring for their pets.
• Pet ownership is ultimately the responsibility of the adult – not the child.
To learn more about how pets positively affect children, visit the Mutt-i-grees® Curriculum at www.education.muttigrees.org. This curriculum was developed in collaboration with Yale University’s School of the 21st Century and North Shore Animal League America’s development arm, The Pet Savers Foundation.