Give your child a sibling or a pet?

No wonder this is an eccentric comparison but since you have the doubts, we have the solutions. Planning a child or adopting a pet, both of these are life changing decisions and hence are to be taken after due caution and rationality. Here we have a handful of suggestions to help you in taking the plunge.

What do statistics say?

There was a study conducted in collaboration with the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition in Leicestershire, a research centre owned by Mars Petcare, which is the company behind the famous cat and dog food brand, Pedigree and the study yielded astonishing results, that children prefer their pets to their siblings!

 The benefits of Tail Wagging

A pet impacts children’s social development to a great extent by influencing their social skills and emotional well being. Changing the litter box, cleaning bathing, feeding them and even taking them on walks invokes a sense of responsibility in your child.

The children get exposed to unconditional love and care in their tender years by witnessing the companionship which nurtures a beautiful bond of endearment and love. They cherish this equation throughout their life and attempt to create the same bond in other relationships.

Litter box over Diapers?

Another study by Matthew Cassels of the University of Cambridge says that children on the cusp of the teen years may have better relationships with their pets than their siblings. The adolescent years which throw various academic, emotional and peer challenges at them often expose them to stress and pressure due to which they drift apart from their family and prefer isolation. Here your pet comes to the rescue. The love and acceptance of a pet, the care and caution towards it acts as a magnet to keep the child at bay from the mental breakdown all such strain and anxiety tend to cause.

To your surprise children often rate the fact of no back argument from a pet as an advantage of owning it than having a brother or a sister. The sibling rivalry is usually hard to deal with for almost all the parents and sadly, it begins from the day the second baby enters your home. The jealousy, competition, fight and the sense of not sharing may become a huge challenge for you to deal with and owning a pet might shield you from such issues.