Parents usually have to hear their children beg them for a dog or a cat which is great but it might not be the best first step. It seems that those two would be great choices but they will not teach the kids much about responsibility. Even though the child promises to take care of the pet this does not usually happen regularly and it might cause more trouble than its worth if the pet is big. It is not easy to deal with a dog's or cat's death due to neglect as they are such personable animals and it is also very had to give them away for their owners.

I do believe that it is very beneficial to child to have some animal to take care of. It will give them a new friend to look forward to when they come home, and start nurturing that sense of caring which becomes very important as they get older. A cat does not like to be touched much and is usually taking care of themselves and tend to not be as good with children so I would stay away from them if the child is still young. The dog on the other hand is great if the breed enjoys kids but you will end up taking care of it yourself as it is usually just too much for a small child capabilities.

There are many other pets that are smaller in size and do not need such taking care of but can still be very enjoyable. As I was growing up I think I had almost every kind of animal in my house and it helped me learn how to take care of them and get very comfortable with other species around me. I had mice, hamsters, fish, frogs, lizards, parakeets, cats, and dogs. The larger animals were taken care of by my parents, but I had a lot of fun with the smaller ones... even the fish.

A child should be taught how to take care of and not hurt the animal but beyond that should be left by themselves to learn responsibility. If something happens to the animal because of them, they will understand it. Mice or hamsters for example are great as they can be played with constantly, and withstand a lot, but are also easy to replace. The child's imagination is amazing and I have taught my birds how to ride in cars and they were always flying around my room. I had the mice in a large aquarium and I built them multiple story houses out of cardboard and even watched them have babies.

For a child these can be amazing moments, and it is also a great time for you to get them learning by their own will. You can easily get them a book about hamsters from the local library and they will read it wanting to know more about their pet. This might be the first time where your young ones are actually wanting to gather more information about a topic, and will help them tremendously later on in school.