Quote Originally Posted by icygirl View Post
Sean, that was a well told anecdote that happens way too often. The parent-buying-for-child story is probably THE biggest cause of improper animal care that I see. The kid begs and pleads with his parents that he will never be happy again unless he has a [insert animal type here]. The parent doesn't really care about the animal, but wants to indulge or satisfy the kid. Unfortunately, most young kids aren't used to having responsibilities and/or are unable to care for animals themselves.

But here's the thing: the kids who receive these animals will also be learning about them, and learning to respect herps - which is definitely a good thing. So where do you draw the line?
Well I've got 4 kids so I've been down the "mommy PLEASEEEEEEEEE" route loads of times. Granted I'm definitely an "animal person" but the line in our home is pretty firm. If Mike or I are not willing to back one of the kids up fully on the care of the animal they want, and they aren't willing to do the learning first about that animal, then they cannot have it - no matter how much fuss they put up.

Our kids have snakes all around them but when Luke and Beth both asked for their own "personal" snakes we still made them go through the following -

- research online on the species of snake and it's care
- keeping their school grades to a pre-determined level to show a responsible attitude
- contribution of half of the cost of their snake
- assistance with the rat colony care
- direct care of their snake and it's enclosure
- a sit down talk about the future and an agreement about their snake if they could not care for them at some point (they are teens and need to think about college and so forth and what that means for their snakes)

Even Michael at 6 is expected to help care for Buddy his snake and help with the rat colony that feeds Buddy. As he matures he'll be expected to do more and more of that care by himself.

It's all fine and well to think that animals help teach our kids, but that line should be drawn when the animal is suffering for that life lesson.

Another example - Luke is 16, he'd like a big spider. I am sadly and stupidly terrified of large spiders. Since I cannot back Luke up and help care for this type of pet, he knows he cannot have one until he has his own home someday. Did he like this decision? Nope not one bit, but he understands the rule about animals deserving care even if their owner is not home so he's accepted that on this, he must wait.