Monday, 17 November 2008
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QOTD: Babies and Pets?
by Momaroo Team 
How do you feel about raising a baby around pets? Growing up, were you raised around pets as well?
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Comments (43)
@SaraSong@xanga - I had a friend who had a chihuahua and after her baby came, the dog got jealous and would go and pee on the baby's crib legs.
It might take a little time for the dog to adjust, but my friend's dog was okay after some time I think.
My parents wouldn't let us have animals growing up. I guess my mom knew she'd be the one to take care of it and just wasn't willing to be responsible for one more living thing. As a result I was terrified of dogs as a child! I finally got over my fears in college and adopted a kitten, who is the first love of my life. After I got married, DH and I adopted a dog, a medium size mutt. Don't get me wrong, I love that dog, he's great with my son, but good lord, he's a handful! Both animals were well established and set in their ways by the time my son came along, but they accepted him as part of the family. These days the dog loves my son (21 months), my son loves the cat (yeah, loves to terrorize the cat), and the cat hates everyone but me. It's kind of funny, but the cat tolerated my son very well. She lets him chase her around, has never scratched or bit at him, ever. The dog is so submissive to DS. They are such good friends. I could never not have animals now after having them. They really do enrich your life!
I was raised with pets in the house.
Dogs, cats, rats, and fish. Even now we have a house full of animals, and I wouldn't trade it for a second.
If I had a baby I would ban pets from my bedroom and I would take extra precautions, but I wouldn't change much else.
I have no problem having pets around the kids, but I didn't get my first pet until I was maybe 6 or so.
Having a pet around the house can help a kid become immune to allergies caused by pet dander (I think I worded that right) so its actually prolly a good idea to have animals around :)
When my mom get pregnant my step dad decided to move in with us. So he brought the dogs over as well. My baby brother is gonna be a year old (on Wednesday!) and the dogs have taken to him very well. and he loves watching the dogs all the time! (or anything that moves really)
Its super cute :D
Oh hell yeah! I love animals and I'm going to make sure my kids do too! I've been around dogs, cats, hamsters, ferrets, even snakes since I was born and I want the same for my children (no snakes though! LOL).
I don't remember ever not having pets, and I would definitely raise my children with them.
Definitely. I don't have children right now, but I hear a lot that when we decide to have a baby, we will have to get rid of our pets (currently 3 cats and 2 ferrets). I grew up around animals and couldn't imagine depriving my children of that. Plus, I've read that children who grow up around animals are healthier because they are exposed to more germs and their bodies build up immunities to them so they can fight them off better.
We have a 2 year old son, a 4 year old Boxer and an 11 year old Jack Russell Terrier. The Boxer is the best dog to our son. The jack Russell does her best to avoid him, but she is good with him also. I could not imagine raising my son without a dog in the house.
On August 1st of this year, our ten month old Great Pyrenees puppy, Sascha (shown in my profile picture), died from autoimmune hemolytic anemia--a condition that her vet NEVER caught despite all the signs and frequent vet visits. She passed very suddenly, and our grief was profound. Even my boyfriend, who served in Iraq and unfortunately saw people get killed all the time without shedding a tear, wept for days. I still sometimes shed a few tears for her. We both still miss her very, very much.
But on to the point of this post: besides feeling like we'd lost our baby (to others, she was a dog; to us she was an adopted daughter who was short, hairy, walked on all fours and had a speech impediment, LOL), we were so disappointed because we'll likely become parents to children of the human variety within the next two years. Sascha was SO smart and SO gentle and SO fantastic with children and smaller animals that we know she would have been great with our future kids.
We plan to get another Great Pyrenees puppy sometime in the spring, and when children come into the picture, we'll be preparing our "fur baby" for the new arrivals. If our next dog's personality is anything like Sascha's (and her personality was, by all accounts, largely typical of her breed), we're sure that the dog and the kids will have many happy years together!
My mum had a dog when we were all toddlers and he was teething and he hurt us and was way too rough so we got rid of him, when i was older, about 7 i got a dog
I had really bad allergies and asthma as a child, so I wouldn't have any pets in the house... just incase my children are allergic too! When they get older, and can help with the responsibilities (or I can atleast teach them what they are and how you're supposed to treat dogs/cats/pets) I definitely will get a dog or cat, as long as you have the time to train them, they don't HAVE to knock your kids down and as long as you can teach your kids not to pull tails, they don't HAVE to be agressive, you know.
@thinkin_up_dreams@xanga - having pets around doesn't help kids become immune if they are allergic to pet dander... I'm allergic to pet dander and REALLY allergic to cats, especially.. if my mom would have had a cat in our house I would have been a VERY sick child, it wasn't until I was on allergy medicine that my mom could even take me to houses with cats in them for longer than an hour, hour and a half. children do have allergies that go away as they get older, but having a pet that your kid is allergic to, and thinking that they'll be OK isn't always a good way to think, just a head's up. :)
i grew up with a cat (evil, btw. i was terrified by that thing) and an old english sheep dog named mr french. i came up to his shoulder and he was the coolest dog in the world. totally loved him. now we have 2 dogs 2 cats 2 birds a turtle and a ferret. the neighbor kids all love them and we all love them (except the cats. evil. they keep dropping dead mice in front of me. oh yeah, we have a colony of mice living in our laundry room. my mother hates mice about 2 million times more than i dislike cats, and is terrified of them) but yeah i would raise kids and keep pets. maybe not as many pets as i have now, but i'll probably at least have a dog until the kids are old enough that its not a problem to have more
I used to have a best friend... who was a really strange person. Her parents made a point of getting rid of her animals before they died to protect her from the sadness of death... then her grandpa died and she had no idea how to take it. She went crazy and started injuring herself and insisting that it was wrong for him to die... he was eighty something.
Thing is, pets help people learn to deal with death... and that's a big thing, but tehy're also such a huge part of who we are. If you get rodents for your kids when they're old enough to take care of them, they learn to take care of them when they're sick (they get sick too much) and how to put something else's needs before their own...
I'm 18. My life savings consists of about 2,000 dollars... and I have a guinea pig who needs a surgery that will cost me 100.
Granted, I still don't want to spend the money, but she's mine... and I have to.
My babies have made me a MUCH less selfish person.
@englishbelleinks@xanga - I'm sorry but thinking that a larger breed is more probable a risk to a baby is incorrect. If any size of dog is a risk i'd guess it to be a smaller one since they can be known to be aggressive in an attempt to protect themselves as they are smaller. Dogs are pack animals and loyal as well as social creatures. while it's true there are times when a dog can pose a risk, if an owner educates themeselves and seeks help in training a dog if necesary there will be no worries.
I have a 10 month old baby girl and I've had a dog for seven years now and I let my baby around the dog all the time. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. You just have to know, if your pet is safe around the baby and even if they are, you still got to watch them, when their around the pet, because anything can happen.
awww that picture is cute. i think its ok to have babies and pets in the same house, it teaches the kid(s) about love, care and responsibility and maybe it teaches the pet the same things too. pets are smart. babies and pets go hand in hand. the more the merrier. so cute...
unless the baby is allergic...