Yeap. My 4yr old called every animal he seen a kitty for the first 2 years he was born!
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Who shares their home with kids and animals?
- Thread starter menagerie mama
- Start Date
Theres nothing more normal and healthy then rasing kids and pets. I have always had cats and my two boys. Plus a big old golden retriever that grew up with the boys. whats a home without pets and kids.
My two sons are cat lovers . Some of their fondest memories are of there favorite Siamese cat Tasha. It sure would be a empty house without the pets and kids.
Kids learn compasion and resposibility helping to care for the cats. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
My two sons are cat lovers . Some of their fondest memories are of there favorite Siamese cat Tasha. It sure would be a empty house without the pets and kids.
Kids learn compasion and resposibility helping to care for the cats. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
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Don't let it bother you until just recently I had 4 cats(r.i.p Hobo) 2 dogs, 2 gerbils(r.i.p Mischief & Mayhem) 18 fish(gave to my cousin) and 2 horses. That all lived with me my fiance and 4 kids (counting my stepson who has 2 cats at his own house).My kids respect animals and everyone gets along (well except the dogs & cats thats why the dogs are outside) I was raised with animals all my life and I wouldn't want my kids to be reaised without them. As long (and I believe someone else said this too) as you can afford to raise the kids and still provide for everyone else then who cares! If other people want to have kids and get rid of their animals that is there choice (although it makes me mad when they do that).. hehe maybe there will be room at your place for them.
Here are a couple of interesting cat quotes from, "A Celebration of Cats," by Roger Caras:
"A house without either a cat or a dog is the house of a scoundrel." Portuguese proverb
"Beware of people who dislikes cats," the Irish say...
Another interesting point is the theraputic effect animals have on troubled children. We have 2 biological children and 2 children adopted from Ethiopia 3 years ago, at ages 5 and 7. The 5-year old girl (who is now 8) is developmentally disabled, and she has really benefitted by having animals around. She helps take care of them, and has an uncanny way with both dogs and cats. She often has trouble finding the right words to communicate- but she can always communicate with her cat, big fat orange "Hobbes," who is our "therapy cat" who actually wraps his paws around your neck, gives hugs, and nibbles on ears.
She has developed alot of self-confidence through helping me with the animals at bath time, medication time, nail-cutting time-- she could actually be a vet tech, she is so good now! And she loves the animals.
My adopted son had never known of the concept "pet" before he came to America-- he fell in love with cats after he came. He bonded particularly with our black tom "Felix"- and it was mutual. Up to that point Felix had been MY cat-- the traitor switched to my son Wasihun!
Felix sleeps with him, and Wasi spoils and loves him every day. When a neighbor dumped a box of 4-week old feral kittens at our house 2 summers ago, we tamed them and tried to get them into a no-kill shelter to no avail. Well, Wasi really bonded with "Smitty," a butterscotch tom (named after Wasi's soccer team sponsor that year!) but as Smitty matured, Felix resented him and began spraying ONLY in Wasihun's room.
Wasi had the maturity and insight to decide, on his own, to exclusively pay attention to Felix when they were both around- "Felix was here first, he is my one-first cat."
Well, this strategy worked-- he still dotes on Smitty when Felix is asleep or in another part of the house, and he only lets Felix sleep in his room. Now Felix is happy, and only rarely sprays.
Sorry this is so long-- all this to say all 4 of my kids have benefitted by fostering helpless, homeless animals- they have learned compassion and the value of animals- and through sharing their home and lives with animals.
And interestingly, 3 of them have allergies, but NOT to animals-- to dust and pollen!
Robyn
"A house without either a cat or a dog is the house of a scoundrel." Portuguese proverb
"Beware of people who dislikes cats," the Irish say...
Another interesting point is the theraputic effect animals have on troubled children. We have 2 biological children and 2 children adopted from Ethiopia 3 years ago, at ages 5 and 7. The 5-year old girl (who is now 8) is developmentally disabled, and she has really benefitted by having animals around. She helps take care of them, and has an uncanny way with both dogs and cats. She often has trouble finding the right words to communicate- but she can always communicate with her cat, big fat orange "Hobbes," who is our "therapy cat" who actually wraps his paws around your neck, gives hugs, and nibbles on ears.
She has developed alot of self-confidence through helping me with the animals at bath time, medication time, nail-cutting time-- she could actually be a vet tech, she is so good now! And she loves the animals.
My adopted son had never known of the concept "pet" before he came to America-- he fell in love with cats after he came. He bonded particularly with our black tom "Felix"- and it was mutual. Up to that point Felix had been MY cat-- the traitor switched to my son Wasihun!
Felix sleeps with him, and Wasi spoils and loves him every day. When a neighbor dumped a box of 4-week old feral kittens at our house 2 summers ago, we tamed them and tried to get them into a no-kill shelter to no avail. Well, Wasi really bonded with "Smitty," a butterscotch tom (named after Wasi's soccer team sponsor that year!) but as Smitty matured, Felix resented him and began spraying ONLY in Wasihun's room.
Wasi had the maturity and insight to decide, on his own, to exclusively pay attention to Felix when they were both around- "Felix was here first, he is my one-first cat."
Well, this strategy worked-- he still dotes on Smitty when Felix is asleep or in another part of the house, and he only lets Felix sleep in his room. Now Felix is happy, and only rarely sprays.
Sorry this is so long-- all this to say all 4 of my kids have benefitted by fostering helpless, homeless animals- they have learned compassion and the value of animals- and through sharing their home and lives with animals.
And interestingly, 3 of them have allergies, but NOT to animals-- to dust and pollen!
Robyn
My parent always had cats and dogs from me being very young and it did me no harm
i really loved that story.
That's a great story. You're helping children and animals at the same time - shock horror! You mean you don't have to exclude one or the other?
Good for you Robyn!
As for the allergies argument - hasn't it been shown in studies that kids who grow up in the country and around lots of animals, are much less likely to develop asthma?
As for the allergies argument - hasn't it been shown in studies that kids who grow up in the country and around lots of animals, are much less likely to develop asthma?
Same here, we always had dogs when I was little, no harm here!
My mom does daycare and she has a mutt, Sadie as an indoor dog and all those kids have grown up at my moms house with her and never had any harm. They also have a Chocolate Lab (outside dog) that the kids go outside and play with too, and no harm done there either!
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #30
Here's an update. I was waiting to see what you all said and now that I've read all your post agreeing with me, I'll let you in on a little secret. The person who said that to me was my own boyfriend, Mark. Saturday night I was doing the dishes while he gave Kayla her bath, and Pedro went upstairs when I wasn't watching and pooped on the bedroom floor. He's a Chihuahua, they sometimes do that, and it was the tiniest of turds, not like a pile or anything. I blamed it on myself, I didn't let them out right after they ate like I usually do because I was doing the dishes. Mark had none of it. He was furious! He started saying Pedro had used his final chance and I asked him why he disliked animals so much and he said he used to think of animals as family members but it all changed when he had a kid and now she's his #1 priority and animals are just that...animals. He even went as far as to start ripping on people who are trying to save endangered species, he said that's life and evey time humans have a child, a tree is killed and another monkey loses his home, but that's the way it is, blah blah blah....He really got intense about it. He then told me that no animals should ever bite a human no matter what and started yelling about Cajun because he bit him in play once and he took it as a regular bite so now I have 3 biting animals (Emily play bites too, and he used to think it was cute) and if I can't see that there's something wrong with that, and if I don't downsize my animals, I have no business raising kids.....At that point I went upstairs and went to bed (We had had some martinis so I didn't feel like driving home just then) and sobbed myself to sleep. I woke up every hour and couldn't fall back to sleep. I knew in the morning I had to make the decision. The next morning I woke up, cried a little more, was ignored by Mark, got my stuff and left. I haven't heard from him since. I came home and thought about how much I loved him, how many plans we made and all the things we did together. My heart is broken and continues to break more with each hour that passes. I can't believe he would throw away what we had over this. From what he's told me, he has had nothing but bad luck with relationships, I mean, he dated some psychos, and our relationship was almost perfect, and he's letting it go because I have too many animals???? I'm really just blown away by it. Yesterday we went and took Kalya to see Santa, we went and got a Christmas tree, and decorated the house, ate dinner, and then...WHAM! It was over. I didn't even have time to drift apart from him, it's all such a shock right now. But I look at my animals and see how much they love me, and depend on me, and I know I made the right decision. I'm just hurting so bad right now. He was so wonderful otherwise, why couldn't he just accept me and my animals for what we are?
Aw, Shannon! That stinks. It really does.
But, as much as you are hurting right now, aren't you glad you made this discovery now rather than after you'd married the guy?
Well, there are a lot of people who are scared of cats. I don't why, but they are. They just weren't raised with them, and there's a lot of superstition about cats. I have actually had someone stand in my doorway crying because I had cats. My ex always thought the cats would "pop the babies eyes out". He also thought "cats can survive on their own" and "cat's will suck the baby's breath" and "cat fur is filthy" and on and on. He still gives me a hard time once in a while because we have been separated for three years and I have custody of our child, and I have three cats.
My thoughts exactly. Here is a big hug to you from me and HarleyOriginally Posted by rapunzel47
Aw, Shannon! That stinks. It really does.But, as much as you are hurting right now, aren't you glad you made this discovery now rather than after you'd married the guy?
OH how incredibly heartless!!! Shannon, it really is best that you found out now, rather than later. I can't believe he's so narrow-minded. I guess no-one ever taught him that the animals were here first. How insensitive, heartless, tactless, hurtful, shallow..... omg Shammon, I could reel off strings and strings of words for the way he's behaved towards you and your animals. I'm really angry for you. I can't believe he would throw something so wonderful away just because of that. I'm sending you really really big hugs
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #35
For those of you that have been following this story and possibly wondering about it, see thread "Who shares their home with kids and pets?" for the details...Argh!!!
I am so sorry. I just went and read the thread and part of me is wondering if he is using the pets as an excuse to treat you like that? The things he said were completely heartless. Methinks something else is going on with him.
You are in my thoughts
You are in my thoughts
Originally Posted by Kiwideus
I am so sorry. I just went and read the thread and part of me is wondering if he is using the pets as an excuse to treat you like that? The things he said were completely heartless. Methinks something else is going on with him.
You are in my thoughts
Because a friend of mine is actually in a similar situation as you are
