I bet most parents have been suckered into bringing home a small pet (a hamster, mouse, guinea pig, fish, lizard or turtle) for their child. I sure suckered my parents into getting me a handful of pets as a child. Growing up I had 2 hamsters, an iguana, a frog, a hermit crab and a few dozen fish, in addition to having a dog or two.These "pocket pets" were always SO much fun...for the first couple weeks. Then the excitement dies down and the poor animal spends less and less time out of the cage being social. Over time it gets less attention and is only socialized when the cage is being cleaned.
The intentions are great. But think about the life of this poor animal. How horrible. And what does this teach our children?
As much as I LOVE animals, and love having them as pets, I know a pet would not get the attention it needs living in our house. This is especially hard when Ethan asks about our future dog. This is a weekly discussion. We are NOT getting a dog now, or any other animal.
BUT we have come up with the perfect solution to having a small pet. TIMESHARE!
Ethan's preschool teacher has a turtle in her classroom. Over the summer she needs someone to take the turtle home. We volunteered! Ethan's friend turtle-sat "Stripes" for the first half of the summer, and now it's our turn. We have Stripes for 6 weeks. This is the perfect amount of time to care for a small animal. It's new, fun and exciting. As a family we get to work together to take care of our pet and the kids will learn a lot. I know Ethan will grow bored with the turtle eventually and then it will be time to give him back.
I would definitely consider doing this again. (Or maybe I should get back into Fostering) :)
Some day.
