Children and pets

I think we have all gone through this, either as the child or the parent. In my case both. I remember as a child wanting and getting a 5 gallon fish tank with goldfish. I also remember being told to keep the tank clean. This was back in the days when filters amounted to changing part of the water at least once a week and was all done by hand – mine. Well after a few times at that I got lazy and the water got really bad. Dad changed it a few times and we were lucky the fish didn’t die, but they did get water temp shock. They recovered. I had them for about 6 years until we moved and I don’t remember what happened to them. What I do remember was the yelling at me or my sister to “take care of the fish”.

That was when I was about 10 years old. Move forward 8 years. Now we had a dog. I always was the one to take the dog for a walk, no one else bothered. Soon after that I got married and my husband and I had our own pets. Both of us were denied pets of our own as we were growing up so we made up for lost time.

5 years into our marriage we decided to start a family. Our daughter was born and she just fit right in with the pets. She took care of them too – until this year at the age of 13. Now she needs to be reminded ” does the bird have food and water?” “did you clean out the cat box?” All to the very predictable answer “I know Mom”

I know that she will grow out of that stage but it sure is taking some time to do so.