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January 1, 2007
Happy Mothers Day! You can’t wait to hear those words, take a bubble bath, eat chocolates, and enjoy that book you’ve wanted to read…after your impossibly long to-do list. Pets, like every family member, bring your household special joy…plus challenges and chaos to even the best-organized families. There are three areas which create issues for parents who juggle a busy household with pets: 
- meeting your family pet’s needs,
- managing the interaction between your child and pet, and
- keeping your child engaged in pet care.
Meeting your family pet’s needs means giving her the exercise, affection, mental stimulation, and rest she needs. Dogs will act out to get their needs met any possible way, just like children. If your dog makes your busy life even more complicated by countless annoying behaviors, meet her needs and many annoying behaviors should go away. Ten to fifteen minutes of daily training or playtime go a long way toward making bad habits disappear, while reducing your stress and increasing your joy. While dogs are probably best at making life chaotic, remember that cats, small mammals, and even goldfish have needs. Even a quiet and cooperative pet has needs for you to meet.
Managing the interaction between your child and pet will promote successful child development and safety. Most children, especially young ones, don’t easily understand the difference between a plush toy they can squeeze and the hamster that bites when squeezed. Teach your child respect and empathy for family pets and his relationships will be more peaceful and require less refereeing. Teach specific ways to interact with pets such as using only one or two fingers to pet small animals, and putting away favorite toys so dogs and cats don’t destroy them. Animal Wow’s award-winning Dogs Wow Dogs DVD demonstrates many safety tips and child-appropriate activities.
How do you keep your child engaged in pet care? When a child wants a pet, all responsibilities pale compared to the joy of a cute new animal. When the reality of responsibility hits, try not to nag your child endlessly about pet care. If your child is very young, have him help you with pet care. As you and your child feed, pet, or clean the animal together, talk about how loved the pet feels when it is cared for. This builds good habits, life skills and values.
What if an older child’s responsibilities are already a power struggle for you? Back up and start over. Write a contract with your child including rewards and consequences. For instance, “Justin cleans the yard every weekday. Dad cleans the yard weekends. When Justin does his part he gets to choose dinner Saturday. If Justin skips a day he loses computer privileges the next day.” Make it fun with silly consequences for Dad. The most important part of this contract is to stick to it and model the behavior you want in your child.
Now, when someone wishes you “Happy Mother’s Day,” you can take a deep breath and say, “Absolutely!”
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