[New] seven reasons WHY PETS ARE GOOD FOR KIDS

By Dr Margit Muller

Pets and children can become the best of friends. They adore each other and form a deep-rooted bond and relationship that helps children, especially young ones, learn about social bonding. Pets can have an amazingly positive impact on children’s lives, their personal development and happiness. But what is it exactly that makes pets so great for kids?

1. BUILDING TRUST

Small children need to learn how to develop trust in others and themselves. A wonderful way to learn this is to have a pet. Children often regard their pets as their best friends. They love them and share their feelings and emotions with them including their secrets, hopes, dreams and also their worries and sadness too.

2. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

Knowing how to take responsibility for oneself and others is one of the cornerstones for a successful life. This is where pets come in. Small kids are not yet used to being responsible for anything. However, caring for a pet teaches children how to take responsibility for another living being.

3. NURTURING

Early childhood is the best time to learn life skills. Pets can help young kids develop the character traits which will help them form strong and loving relationships at home and work.

4. ESTABLISHING SELF-ESTEEM

Children who lack self-esteem, will not be able to develop their full potential and become self-assured adults. Pets can be really helpful in building self-esteem, especially dogs or rare pets like birds or reptiles, although reptiles are more suitable for older children.

5. BUILDING SELF-CONFIDENCE

Today’s children face a lot of pressure at school and home. Their confidence can be shaken events such as moving school, divorce or exams. Feeding a pet, taking care of it and nurturing it, helps to create a sense of worthiness and rebuilds children’s confidence.

6. IMPROVING COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal, are of utmost importance for positive relationships with parents, siblings, and friends and for being successful at school and later, at work. The easiest way to learn good communication skills is to observe pets.

7. Pets are great fun

And, lastly, of course, we mustn’t forget that pets are great fun and really bonding for families! So there are major advantages to letting our kids grow up with their beloved furry or feathery friends, whenever we can.

Areport published in August by the Women and Equalities Committee called for reform to family law in England and Wales to better protect cohabiting couples and their children from financial hardship in the event of separation. In November, the Government responded.

Cohabiting couples are the fastest growing family type in England and Wales, double the number recorded 25 years ago and representing one in every five families living together.

The main thrust of the report, which had the support of MPs, family lawyers and related professional bodies, was to highlight the current lack of legal protection for cohabiting couples. This status means that in the event of a family breakdown, women in particular can suffer relationship-generated disadvantage. Not for the first time in recent years, it was a call for the law to be adapted to reflect the social reality of modern relationships while still recognising the social and religious status of marriage. The report invited reform on how cohabitants are treated with regards to inheritance and pensions in the event of a partner dying; currently cohabitants do not automatically inherit from their partner. The report was also emphatic in the continued need to dispel the ‘common law marriage myth’ with a recommendation that the Government launch a public awareness campaign to inform people of the legal distinctions between getting married, forming a civil partnership and living together as cohabiting partners. In other words, there is still a need to, once and for all, stamp out the erroneous belief that if you live with someone for a number years, you have the same rights as a married couple. You don’t!

The Government, in its response to the Committee’s report, rejected most of these suggestions, noting that the ‘existing work on the law of marriage and divorce must conclude before it could consider changes to the law about the rights of cohabitants’. The Government also stated it has no plans to extend the inheritance tax treatment of spouses and civil partners to cohabiting partners but would keep it under review. It partially accepts two recommendations on improved guidance and support to make cohabitants more aware of their legal rights. In short, the legal status of cohabiting couples remains unchanged.

This rejection of the Women and Equalities Committee’s report is disappointing but there is some glimmer of progress in the recognition of the recommendation to improve awareness of a cohabitants’ legal rights even if that is emphasising that without considerable attention to jointly protecting family assets, there really is no legal redress for anyone who has fallen for the “common law spouse” myth. In previous articles in Families magazine, we have explored some of ways you can legally protect yourself and your family, if unmarried.

In brief, the advice remains as follows:

• Seek advice as soon as possible – before there is an issue is better.

• A Cohabitation or Living Together Agreement – The best and easiest way to avoid any dispute in the future and to minimise difficulty at the end of a relationship is to set everything out in writing at the beginning – not very romantic but will save heartache and difficulty later on.

• Make a Will – This can cover what you would like to happen in the event of your death.

• Declaration of Trust – Joint interests, such as the proportions in which property is owned, can be set out in writing.

• Written agreement upon separation – The terms of any relationship breakdown is clear and unambiguous and sets out each party’s entitlements and obligations.

If you are co-habiting and would like further advice on the issues and options available both before or indeed after a relationship breakdown, contact a member of our Family team at Bates Wells and Braithwaite Solicitors, Ipswich. www.bates-wells.co.uk | 01473 219282