My 3 yr old loves all of our animals to death and always wants to hold them. I have no problem letting her sitting on the couch with my help of course. I have a 2 and a half foot burmese that she lets crawl on her. Now my mom thinks this is just not right but as long as I'm near to help I don't see a problem with it. I never let the animals near her if they are showing any kind of attitude either since I wont take a chance of her getting hurt.