What animal would you consider the best family pet for teaching kids how to care for animals. I’ve always preferred rats for how hardy they are but what is your opinion?

drferox:

My opinion is a ‘family pet’ is going to be cared for primarily by the adults, so the ‘best’ family pet is one that the adults will be able to care for well, and remain interested in.

Even if the ‘intention’ is to have the kids responsible for part of its care, ultimate responsibility must remain with the adults. Adults don’t get to put any blame on the kids for what happens to the pet if they forget to do something, or if the pet gets sick. They can’t expect kids to be completely responsible for the pet’s entire life.

It’s depressingly common how often I see families that expect an 8 year old to be making serious decisions about a pet, or who have just thrown kids in the deep end with pet care and expect them to ‘learn’ when things are going wrong. This is unfair for everyone involved.

So the ‘best’ family pet is something that the adults are prepared to take on.

You also shouldn’t be choosing an animal based on its ability to survive neglect. You should be taking measures to ensure the animal is not neglected in the first place. You MUST monitor whether or not the animal is being given proper care. The responsibility is on you, the adult, it is not on the child.

If you want to make your child completely responsible for a living thing, pick something that can’t mentally suffer if neglected. Maybe a plant. Maybe a video game animal.