Skip to main content

Dear Santa, I want a pet

As Christmas quickly approaches, my children's Christmas lists are surely growing and growing and growing.  Despite the fact that we have talked to our children about the fact that we are limiting presents this year and that there are many children around the world who don't have anything, my children continue to write the Christmas lists to Santa.  At the top of this list...pets.

Yes, that is pets - plural.  For some reason my children think that our house should be Noah's Ark.  The list of appropriate pets to have ranges from dogs (of which we already have two), cats, birds, bats, and even unicorns (Yes, the great Unicorn Debate continues).  What my children lack in comprehending is the needs and responsibilities surrounding pets.

Pets are wonderful creatures, no matter the type.  They have allowed me to teach my children about kindness towards animals, being careful, asking permission to pet them, understanding hearing "no" can protect both child and pet, loving something that doesn't act or look like you, appropriate manners of expressing love, understanding when an animal is scared or unhappy, responsibility with feeding and caring for someone other than yourself, and so much more.  Even at a young age, my children are learning through our pets.

But, getting a pet just to cross off an item on a Christmas list and make a child happy for a day is not the way to approach becoming a pet owner.  This doesn't mean you shouldn't give your child a pet for Christmas, but rather means you should be sure to do your homework.

Take, for instance, one of my pets: a female Siberian Husky.  I like to call her my ornery teenager or large cat.  She doesn't act like a dog.  She is finicky, does what she wants to do when she wants to, sometimes extremely playful and other times just wants to be left alone.  She is highly trained, but continues to remind us that she isn't a trick pony and will not perform on command.  She is an escape artist.  When we moved into our home, our back yard was specifically tailored to her needs: a 6-foot tall wrought iron fence, with minimum spacing between posts, paver stones were dug into the ground under the fence with the bottom of the posts coming no more than three inches above them so that she could not escape.  This wasn't a cheap need, but it was required to keep her safe.  We were prepared to take on this need because we had done our research on huskies.  None of these behaviors is unique to our dog.

So, where do you begin the task of lighting up your child's face when they find out they're getting a new pet for Christmas?  Here are some thoughts on starting small...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I'm no longer telling my kids to have fun

Today, I've made an important realization that is changing the way that I talk to my children.  I am no longer going to tell them to have fun. Don't get me wrong, I desperately desire that my children find joy, happiness and laughter through numerous experiences and adventures.  But, my children's definition of fun and mine have two VERY different meanings. I'll give you an example. My almost four-year-old son loves to destroy things.  He's like his dad - a man who just wants to learn how things work, as well as cause and effect.  So, he takes apart toys, sister's dolls, kitchen appliances, and more.  He tears books because "the story was in the wrong order."  He pushes buttons - both literally and figuratively.  He colors on walls, floors, computer monitors, furniture, carpet and more because he wants to create maps and "building plans" for his Duplos.  This is his idea of fun . Do you see my dilemma?  His idea of fun is so completel

Leadership Mom: SWOT Analysis

In business, leaders often analyze our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats through a SWOT analysis.  So, if we are going to look at our role as moms as being the greatest leadership opportunity to us, let's start with analyzing ourselves and our kids.  Here's the SWOT I developed for my family: Family SWOT Analysis As a doting mother, there are hundreds of strengths that I could put up here for my kids.  Their hugs, kisses, bedtime stories and prayers, the fact that they come to me when they're seeking healing from an injury (physical or emotional), the notes and drawings they make for me, their precious hearts when they try to help me or that they've learned how to use the Keurig to bring me coffee in the morning...I could go on and on. Now, here's the part where we get honest with ourselves.  Yes, we love our kids and we love our family (or, hopefully, most of the time), but we are not perfect.  Nor should we be perfect.  As we analyze oursel

AIOs, Pocket, and Prefolds...Oh, my!

As mentioned in my previous blog, cloth diapers are not your momma's cloth diapers any more.  Now, the lingo can be daunting.  There are AIOs, AI2s, diaper covers, doublers, fitted diapers, flat diapers, hybrid diapers, inserts, liners, one-size diapers, pocket diapers, and prefolds. When I first began my cloth diaper research, all of the different options overwhelmed me, and I didn't know where to begin.  So, I did the only thing I knew to do...I asked other moms! While every mom will have a different story to share with cloth diapers, you still get some very good information.  I learned why moms liked the diapers they chose, some of the downsides, and the costs to the different diaper systems.  I also began to develop my own decisions on how I wanted to start the cloth diapers.  When I first thought about using cloth diapers, I was dead set against anything that wasn't an all-in-one (AIO).  These are the Porsches of the diaper world.  There's no messing with diaper pi