Is Your Child Really Ready for a Pet? 6 Signs You Can’t Ignore

EPISODE TITLE:

Is Your Child Really Ready for a Pet? Signs Every Parent Should Know

HOST: Amy Castro

GUEST: Dori Durbin, Children’s Book Illustrator, Author, Book Coach, and Host of That’s Good Parenting

SUMMARY:

In this conversation, Amy Castro and parenting expert Dori Durbin walk through the key signs that show whether a child is truly ready for a pet. They break down emotional readiness, boundaries, responsibility, empathy, frustration tolerance, and whole-family stability so families can make thoughtful choices that set kids and pets up for success.

LINKS:

Show: thepetparenthotline.com
Guest: doridurbin.com
Guest Podcast: That’s Good Parenting

VETERINARY DISCLAIMER:

This episode provides educational information only. It is not a substitute for professional veterinary advice. Always consult your veterinarian regarding your pet’s specific needs.

TRANSCRIPT NOTE:

Transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Timestamps may vary slightly depending on your player.

TRANSCRIPT:

Amy Castro (00:00)
Thinking about getting your child to pet, but you're not really sure if they're actually ready for the responsibility? Well, before you end up caring for a dog, a cat, or something else you never planned on, let's walk through some signs that will tell you whether this is truly the right time for your child and your family, or just a really strong I want it phase that you just need to power through. Stay tuned.

You've reached the Pet Parent Hotline, your lifeline to practical solutions for your toughest pet parenting challenges. I'm your host Amy Castro, and I'm here to help you cut through the noise and turn expert advice into step-by-step strategies so you can stop chasing your tail and start enjoying life with pets again.

think a lot of parents hear the question, can we get a pet on a loop? Usually backed up by big old promises and even bigger emotions. But knowing whether your child is truly ready goes way beyond how badly they want a puppy or a kitten. And in fact, in rescue, I have seen the aftermath of these decisions being made purely on a child's I want.

and not really on some proper planning and thinking about what the whole process is gonna be like. My guest today has a unique vantage point on this. Her name is Dori Durbin, and she is a children's book illustrator, author, and book coach, and she also hosts the That's Good Parenting podcast. She works with experts to kidsize their wisdom into children's books that help families learn and grow, and she's a pet-loving pet parent herself to a Portuguese water dog and a whole herd of cats.

She sees firsthand how kids think, react, and learn responsibly, which makes her the perfect person to help us break down the signs that will truly tell you whether your child is ready for a pet. Dory, welcome to the show.

Dori Durbin (01:56)
Thank you, Amy. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk to your audience.

 Amy Castro (02:00)
I appreciate that. And for those who may not know, I was recently on Dory's podcast, That's Good Parenting, talking about readiness for pets and how parents can look at that from a bigger picture issue. So we definitely want you to go check that out. But today I wanted her to come on the show and talk about child readiness. Because as somebody that runs a rescue, that's always a huge concern for me when people say that they have children. And I know that having pets when you have children can be a wonderful thing.

But it also can turn into a little bit of a nightmare for kids and for parents and for the pet if the child is not ready for what your expectations are as a parent. I know Dory, you've been through this because you've got pets and kids too, right?

Dori Durbin (02:42)
We do, we do. We actually, live on a farm and we had everything from goldfish to chickens to cats and dogs that we've experienced quite a bit.

 Amy Castro (02:52)
So you know, you know what it's like. And it's hard for parents to say, no, it's not time or they're not ready because, the please, please, please. And especially when it comes to holidays or birthdays or things like that, you can feel under a lot of pressure to give into that. But I think asking yourself some questions and looking for some signs that Dory's going to share with us will help to make sure that you're making a good decision for everybody. So on that note.

I know, Dory, you had said you had signs for us that we should be looking for, So what's the first thing?

Dori Durbin (03:32)
Emotional control is really important. And when I talk to my experts on my podcast, this is always a key thing that parents are struggling with within just their children and everyday life. But then when you add a pet into the mix, if your child is still struggling keeping their emotions under control and we add something else to the mix, it can really escalate them, which can also escalate the dog or the cat or this animal because the animal is reading off of the kid's emotions and their energy.

So for instance, if we have a kid that really gets super excited about things and can't quite calm down, and we bring a puppy into the mix of that, we're asking for chaos right away. ⁓ Whereas if this has a little bit more control and is able to assess how they're feeling and how they're behaving as two separate things, that's a totally different situation. So that would be the first and foremost is like, are your kids able to regulate how they feel?

emotionally and not just inwardly but also outwardly towards the animal that you're bringing into your house.

 Amy Castro (04:36)
And that actually goes both ways for the animal too, because the animal, especially let's talk about puppies and kittens, because that's tends to be what people are looking at or anything that's a baby or young animal. You're already going to have issues with over-excitement and you certainly don't need to be pouring gasoline on that fire of energy and then expecting that everybody's going to suddenly calm down when it gets out of hand. It's now, like you said, you've got two things to manage. You've got the kid to manage and now you've got to calm the pet down as well.

And do you think that tends to come with age or is it really more about the personality of the kids?

Dori Durbin (05:13)
And I don't want to label a kid like if they're out of control at three, they may not be out of control at four. know, it's a developmental too. I know having our own pets, we had one child who was very calm and collected with, we had chickens at that point. They were adult chickens. And then we had the other child that every time they saw them, they just couldn't stand it and would just scream with glee. And so we had buff Orbingtons, they'd scream, buffies, buffies, and run around and chase the chickens, right?

what's the chicken gonna do? It's going to bolt like lightning and everybody went crazy. The whole flock went crazy. So we, know, when it comes down to it, that child on the normal circumstance wasn't crazy. It was that the emotions about this experience that got her going. So we had to really work, like talk about, you know, beforehand, during, after, you know, you can't do that. You're gonna give the chickens a heart attack. That's not how we handled, you know, this.

 Amy Castro (06:09)
We won't be getting any eggs now because you just scared them to death.

Dori Durbin (06:13)
⁓

I mean, never got that bad, you know, it's one of those things that parents have to be ready to intervene and assess as they go. Just because, let's even say, let's say an older dog or an older pet, just because your child in front of you is nice and gentle and calm doesn't always mean that they're always going to react that way. So it's just kind of keeping an eye on that situation for both people. Both the pet and the child. We don't want anybody bitten.

We don't want anybody hurt. We don't want anyone scratched unnecessarily for sure. So yeah, that is a big piece. The other thing that I think is interesting, Amy, is that like when our kids beg and plead and want, you know, they bargain for this animal, ⁓ it's hard to say no. But then we also have to think, is this a short term situation? Are they going to still want this pet the next day? Or are they going to want it a week from now?

when the pet isn't as much fun because it's an older dog now, are they still going to want the pet? So it's a long-term commitment, but a lot of times we lose sight of that in the cuteness of the situation, right? So having a sense of whether or not your child is ready to take on that commitment or if your family is ready to take on that commitment is a big deal too.

 Amy Castro (07:33)
Yeah, definitely a lot to think about there for sure. And I think often about puppies, one thing, kittens is another thing I tell parents all the time. If that's something that can't be reined in, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna have a cat that you never see because it's gonna hide under the bed all the time because there's very few cats that will respond well to the young child's level of energy, the pitch, all of those things. there's exceptions. are some who are, as we call them, kind of bulletproof, but...

For the most part, not so much. So that's a good point. ⁓ So emotional readiness, one big piece. Ability to control the emotions. ⁓ What would be something else we need to think about?

Dori Durbin (08:15)
So another thing is boundaries. Controlling your emotions is one thing. Controlling and respecting other people's boundaries is something else. For instance, I can tell you an example that ended up okay, could have been bad. We bought a new bed for our dog. And when he was a puppy, we had a Great Dane at the time, which is a whole nother story. But we had this giant Great Dane bed that looked so flush and fun. And my son crawled right into it as soon as we put that on the floor. And luckily,

My dog hadn't already been in the bed, but I think that had we not been paying attention, had it been something where the dog had been in the bed for a while, this was the dog's property and my son called in there, there's no guarantee that that dog wouldn't have been a little bit defensive and protective of his own property. And the same thing with sleep, the same thing with food. Like these are all things that the dog is expecting and anticipating belonging to it and even toys sometimes. And so we have to kind of know.

What our child is aware of, ⁓ what are they perceiving from the animal, even understanding some of the animal's body language so that they're respectful of the space that that dog has that feels safe to them or cat or whatever it is, because they all have those kind of situations. And then we also have to make sure we know how that pet's going to react if that boundary is broken because we don't want that to happen without us there. So that's another piece of it too is

A young kid isn't going to know that maybe the dog doesn't like to have its food touched when it's trying to eat, or doesn't want to be leaned on when it's drinking water or whatever the case might be. those physical boundaries mean different things to the child and to the dog.

 Amy Castro (09:58)
Definitely. I remember distinctly volunteering at Animal Control one time and one of my, I used to teach college and one of my former students had come in and she's like, I need a dog that my three year old can manhandle and climb all over and stick their hands in the bowl. And I'm like, okay, even if we had one, that shouldn't be an expectation. I think too many times people don't hear that message or don't.

realize that an animal does need their own personal space and they need to be able to control when they're touched, how they're touched, things like that. And it's a recipe for dangerous things to happen. And if nothing else, I highly recommend that people create spaces, whether it's the dog's bed or having it a separate area. And I'm a big believer in crates, but you know, the crate is the dog's space. And if we need to give the dog some space or the dog wants to take some space, because very often they'll just go,

get in their own crate, that that's an off-limits space. And it's okay to say that. Everybody needs their personal space, I think.

Dori Durbin (10:59)
I think so too. For dogs, mean, they don't understand why the child is hanging on them or why they're in the food. know, it's just, there's an awareness that isn't there for either of them, the child or the dog. So we just have to make sure that we give the, like you said, the space that is safe that they can go to. And it's not an issue. So, yep. So another one is, especially if you have a kid that wants this pet and is swearing up and down that they're going to take care of it.

 Amy Castro (11:18)
Right.

Dori Durbin (11:27)
The question is, are they responsible? It's not, they responsible today? But do they feel a need or calling to complete the task continuously over time? And that's where I said, you know, if you know that your child is really young, you're already signing up to take care of that animal at some point in some way. Maybe the five-year-old is really great at pouring water for the dog and keeps track of that. Maybe those tasks are small, attainable things that aren't going to put the child in danger, but are going to give responsibility without.

full responsibility at that point. feel like at five, we're lucky to get them to put their shoes on, much less take responsibility for taking care of an animal that is depending upon them.

 Amy Castro (12:07)
Thank you. That's exactly, that was kind of one of my main points when I did that episode on why you shouldn't get any pet for your child under five. It wasn't to say that there aren't exceptions, but too many times parents, their thinking process as to why they think it's a good idea to get a pet is not gonna turn out like they think. I mean, I've just, I've been playing this game way too long and you're right, know, age appropriate responsibility, but expecting the hamster is gonna get taken care of by your five year old.

If you're afraid of it and you have no idea how you're ever gonna stomach touching that thing, it's probably not the best pet for you to be getting in your household right now. We did an episode, actually it was two episodes with Dr. Emma Milne, who is a big proponent of animal welfare and making sure that we're meeting animal welfare needs. And that's what we did the episodes on. But one of the things that she said, which I thought was brilliant as far as readiness for the responsibility is,

when her kids would ask for a dog, for example, and the dog should get walked twice a day, every single day, rain, snow, sleet or hail, then let's see if your kids can do that. So she basically would make them go for a walk morning and night in all kinds of weather and basically told them if you can do this. And I don't remember if she said 30 days or if it was longer, but you know, when it comes to day two and your kids already, I don't want to go for the walk. There's your sign people.

You're not going to want to take the real dog for a walk either. that's, yeah, be realistic, I think is an important message there.

Dori Durbin (13:39)
Your example is really great because I think there are small things that we can ask them to do before we even get to this point and see if they're willing to take those steps to actually be responsible, be consistent, to get the water in the bowl, to take care of things. Many times I look back at our family and we as parents were probably more willing than we should have been to do the jobs that we probably should have expected the kids to do. But ⁓ at that time we're like, well we can do this. Well, we're still doing it.

Or if you don't want that responsibility, start to train the kid for those small tasks that they can be responsible for so that that is an expectation when the dog actually comes or cat or a jubble. Even a goldfish. Goldfish? Yeah. I mean, how many underfed, dirty, bold goldfish have you ever met in your life that just kind of got forgotten by the kid because it wasn't as exciting anymore?

 Amy Castro (14:32)
Yes, it's unfortunate because I think sometimes people don't equate that with a dog or a cat, like, it's just a goldfish. But it's a living thing that suffers if it's not being properly cared for. And so it should get the same respect of any other living thing that we bring into our home and level of responsibility. ⁓

Dori Durbin (14:55)
Big things is being able to show empathy towards a pet. And I say this, but I also take a step back because I don't think that the kids can say, ⁓ the dog looks sad because I'm sad or the dog looks sad because, you know, and come up with these reasons. I think it needs to be more based off of what signals is the dog or cat giving us that tell us how the dog or cat is reacting. ⁓ But having empathy towards them enough

to care enough to want to do the things that they have to do over and over again, ⁓ especially as they get older too and they get busy. And I've heard so many families that, you know, they have a dog, the dog was there when the kids were born. And then as the kids got older, kids got busy. Now the kids aren't really responsible for the dog anymore. And it's like they lose a connection or the empathy.

for this animal at the same level that it had been. And that's just something that it eats at me. Honestly, Amy, kills me because I'm like, this dog didn't do anything different. This dog is still the same. But their lives changed and that's a big factor.

 Amy Castro (16:09)
Mm-hmm. You know, it's interesting too, the whole concept of empathy, being able to say, remember yesterday when you were so hungry, when we were in the car and you were crying because you wanted to get home for lunch or whatever it might be. That's how Buddy feels when you forget to give him his dinner, just to help them understand how that animal might feel. And that's why animals, especially caged and tank things, will go overfed, underfed, filthy cages or whatever, because the child's too young to kind of make that connection.

Dori Durbin (16:39)
Yeah. that's, it's, you know, sadly it's very common for that to happen. So I think that is part of the responsibility. I think, don't remember if was you who told me or if it was the commercial that I've seen, but the whole thing that our pets, we are literally their world. Like they, they can't get into the container and get food for themselves. They can't run the faucet and get water for themselves. They can't take themselves out for walks or console themselves that everything's okay when there's fireworks outside. I mean, there's so many different pieces.

that we are there in their lives to support them and they're there for us. So, I mean, it's one of those things that if the empathy is not there, you really question why the pet is there.

 Amy Castro (17:20)
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Or you better be ready to step in as the parent and just take on those responsibilities or be the constant nag, which I think that's another bad situation. Like you need one more thing to remind your kid. If your kids can't brush their teeth without being reminded or get up for school without being reminded, do you really want to add 12 other dog related tasks to that list of things that you have to now remind? I mean, it's just, it's probably not worth it.

Dori Durbin (17:46)
So Amy, along with the emotions sign, another sign is that kids can handle frustration with support. And why I say this is because sometimes dogs don't want to play with them or cats, and it can really be disappointing to the kids. Or let's say you have a sibling, you have multiple kids in the family. Maybe the dog and one of the other siblings gets along with each other more or more easily.

than the owner of the dog. And that can be super hard too. I know with my husband and I, we've had four dogs over the course of our lives. And this most recent one is a female. And I, as an adult, sometimes get frustrated and feel jealous because she runs up to him with her whole body shaking. And I'm like, I've been here all day long. What's going on? So I think that is another piece of it. Like we have to, as parents, be prepared to help the kids.

realize that it's not a dislike. It's that the dog has a different attention, a different focus than what we are expecting it to have at that time. The same thing with going out for walks. I mean, I don't know about you, but sometimes my dog walk quick out when it's windy, rainy, sleety and nasty out. I want to be in and out in 30 seconds. But Marie might be around and found some wild game smell that is enticing to her and we're out there for 10 or 15 and I...

I'm ready to go in so that level of frustration can really be a deterrent for kids experiencing a positive thing.

 Amy Castro (19:16)
their pet. Right. And that happens during the training process too. And that's why oftentimes I will encourage people of younger children to find, you know, it doesn't have to be a senior pet, although that might be perfect. But a puppy is just a whole different level of opportunities for frustration. Let's just put it that way. Lack of cooperation, not coming when you're calling, not wanting to...

play with the ball but is chewing on your sneaker instead, whatever it might be. And so, you know, something that might be a little bit older, that's a little more trained, that's a little more go with the flow could be a good fit. And, you know, that actually makes a good point too for, and I've said this before, but I just want to make sure we make this point here. Whatever you decide to do after listening to this episode, make sure you spend some time with that pet. If it's a dog and you're going to the shelter or a cat, you're going to the shelter.

You know, don't feel like we're going and we're getting one today. Take the time to visit. If it's a pet where you maybe can't do that, maybe find a friend or a family member that has that has a hamster or has a guinea pig or whatever it might be. And maybe see if you can borrow it for the weekend or something like that and see if it's really a good fit. But the more you can, I hate to say test drive, but you the more you can test drive the pet and really see what it's like to have one, the better off you're going to be to.

to know what you're getting yourself into for a lot of these things.

Dori Durbin (20:39)
Well, it actually leads into the last line, which is that the family is stable and ready. And you actually had me starting to think about what we did when our kids wanted a pet. We went to the library. We actually went to the Humane Society and the library. The Humane Society for like the barking, not loud noises, see all the different kinds of animals, because some kids don't realize dogs are going to bark, that they're going to be jumpy, that they have these traits, not all do, but.

That's a possibility. And then when we went to library, we actually looked up all the kinds of dogs that there were. looked up information about how to train dogs. We looked up how to know if your dog is sick, how to understand what your dog is trying to tell you. All of these things that we just took home with us and we spent time together going through the materials. And actually, as a side note, that's exactly why I do what I do, because I feel like that kind of content where you can sit down with it and

spend time talking about it, like in a children's book or in a book that has information simple enough for kids, that's when you can really talk through some of the scenarios that you just, you may not even realize that you need to talk about. So that experience, like you said, of going to somebody else's house, trying out some of the else's pets, trying to walk them, spending time with animals. My one side note too is that for me as an adult, and I can't imagine this for kids,

It's super hard for me to go to a place that has puppies or has kittens and walk out without one. And so I would say, don't make that your first stop. Make that something down the road when you're like really seriously ready to get an animal. because that desire to have the pet far outweighs any emotional or logical, ⁓ sense that, that an adult can make. So I can imagine that for a kid.

But the other thing is that with a stable family environment, it's not that the environment has to be perfect. It's more that do you have a routine? Do you have a routine where you can bring a pet in and they can kind of stick to some of a routine on their own? Or is it some kind of situation where everything is constantly changing and a pet in the middle of that would just get lost? ⁓ it's hard to train the pet. It's going to hard to teach the kids. It's going to be another frustration for the parent if it's not something where it's like.

Okay, we're home for this much amount of time. They can train their animal during these times. At night, we're going to put her in the crate. In the morning when we're gone, we put them in the crate. And then, you know, the rest of the time, this is our routine. If that's stable, that's going to make a huge difference for everybody.

 Amy Castro (23:17)
Right.

Yeah, I think that that goes to capacity. We've talked a lot about the child's capacity to ⁓ to care for the pet, to interact with the pet. But like you said, schedule because animals flourish on routine. Cats hate change. Dogs love routine. And so it doesn't have to be perfection. But if it's utter chaos in your life right now, maybe that's the we're going to wait until kind of point of view. And the other thing I would say capacity wise, too, is financial.

because pets are not inexpensive and even the smallest pets incur cost and it's ongoing for their lifetime. So that's another piece to look at. So there's a lot to consider. And it's interesting, when you were talking about the books, the other thing that I thought about was checking out books about different types of pets. Even if your kid says they want a kitten and you're thinking to yourself, well, I don't think we're ready for a kitten, but what about

a guinea pig or something like that because of maybe the size of your home or maybe get some books on specific animals and see how your child responds to those things along the way would be a good idea too.

Dori Durbin (24:34)
So I feel like, you know, one thing I don't want to do is discourage families from having pets because I think pets are super valuable to the family, to learning to relating to other people, other situations, reading people. There's just lots of reasons to have pets. But in order to get pets with kids, there are a lot of things that people just don't prepare for or don't think through. I am definitely in the mix of like making mistakes.

and realizing that we probably shouldn't have done it at a certain time. And so I'm speaking from experience of like, we've had the chickens and dealt with, you know, trying to take care of 30 chickens in a barn. Like it wasn't fun. Nobody wanted to scoop poop. Nobody wanted to go outside. You know, there's a lot of work to that. Now in the summer, was it great? It was amazing. We were painting chicken toenails. We were teaching them how to ride on bikes. We had that kiddie pool. I mean, we had all kinds of fun with these crazy chickens, right?

But it was realizing that it wasn't just the fun moments, it was the whole process that we're responsible for. And that's where I feel like the kids really need to have some emotional awareness and maturity in order to be helpers in the situation with the pets. Otherwise, we go back to the whole thing of the mom and dad, guess what, you've got a pet, you know, and that's okay if that's okay with you.

 Amy Castro (25:54)
Yeah. I'm glad you said that because I feel like I am sort of a Debbie Downer. Like a lot of my things are why you shouldn't, why you shouldn't, don't do it. And I will freely admit that having done rescue for the last 15 years, because I see the things that don't work out. I see the animals who've been abused or neglected. I see the, the people who are pulling their hair out because they made a terrible mistake. And I'm, I agree with you. I have made personally every single.

mistake that you probably could make as far as not being financially ready, not being, ⁓ not having a stable home environment for whatever pet that I decided I wanted. So I definitely, mean, one of the biggest regrets I have to this day was this poor bunny rabbit, which I got with the best of intentions. I thought I was saving it and I probably was on one hand, but that bunny rabbit lived for a long time. And I feel like although we gave him everything that he needed

physically, from an enrichment standpoint, from an emotional standpoint, I think we did a terrible job on that front. And I still feel guilty to this day that his life was not the way it could have been had the right person gotten him. So that's why I don't have animals like that anymore. Nothing, don't want anything that lives in a cage, a box, a tank, know, anything like that. ⁓ But yeah, I think you do live and learn. And so...

I think my hope with episodes like this is that we just get people to think it all through first and go into it with your eyes open. hopefully we've given some people some food for thought on this subject. anything else that you want to leave people with as far as a last tip or a bit of advice for thinking about this process.

Dori Durbin (27:43)
Yeah, I think when it comes to it, don't rush the decision. Take your time. Do exactly what Amy said. Spend some time looking at the variety of animals. And I think taking your time really researching it. We talked about this in your episode on my show. What do you need to do to find out enough about this pet to know what you're getting into and to know how it's going to be expected or how it needs to be taken care of?

⁓ if this is a pet that's coming into a quiet household and it's a crazy pet, may not be the best fit for you. If this is a pet who's, you know, a little bit more slow moving and your household is crazy, might scare the pet to death. So it's gotta be that perfect balance of your child's readiness, your readiness as a parent, and then the appropriate pet for the situation. And so I say that.

Because that is the ideal and what most people do is they say, there's a cute thing, I'm going to get it. And that gets them in trouble.

 Amy Castro (28:40)
Right. Yes, 100%. It's the spontaneous decisions. It's the emotional decisions. You've got to go into it from a logical perspective because you're going to have to live with that decision for whatever that time length is for the animal. mean, ideally, you would keep it for life and you would go into it thinking that you were going to keep it for life. In the case of a smaller animal, it could be, you know, two, three years. In the case of a dog or cat, it could be 15 to 18 years. That's a huge commitment.

So before I let you go, Dorie, tell us about your podcast. Yeah.

Dori Durbin (29:13)
So my podcast is called That's Good Parenting and basically we look for simple steps to reduce parenting stress. So parents who have kids who are probably under the age of high school and down, I asked experts to come into the show and provide tips and tools that parents can use to solve some of the problems that they might be facing. So I just love to talk to people about that because that's the other part of what I do. Amy, if I can say it. I help experts kids size their content, which means

I help them take their really big concepts that they teach adults and break it down into kids books that are picture books. I work with them to make their own children's books specifically for their expertise.

 Amy Castro (29:53)
And how would people follow up with you if they're an expert that happens to be listening to this or a parent that wants to listen to your podcast? You can go to

Dori Durbin (30:01)
website and that's www.doridurbin.com. The podcast, That's Good Parenting, is on all the major platforms. I also have one more really cool thing, We're starting, it's called That's Good Parenting Club. And basically, I'm inviting parents to come into the kids book world and have opinions about the next books that we create, what the cover will look like, or what some of the main characters look like.

That's free. They can join on the podcast. are links there. Or if they email me, and I'm happy to drop that and probably share the link with you too.

 Amy Castro (30:36)
Yeah, we'll definitely share those links in the show notes as well. So, Dori, thank you so much for being here today and chatting about what I think is a super important topic. And I appreciate your wisdom, not only as a parent, but as an animal lover and as somebody that works with so many parenting experts.

Dori Durbin (30:53)
Thank you for the opportunity and please parents, just enjoy and love your kids and your pets.

 Amy Castro (30:59)
That's right. Bringing home a new pet should set you, your child, and the pet up for success, not stress. If your child shows most of these signs of readiness, you're off to a great start. If not, that doesn't mean never. It just might mean there's room and time needed to build skills they're gonna need before you add a new family member. And if you want more help figuring out readiness for pets at different stages or exploring different types of pets, be sure to check out our other episodes on pet readiness at thepetparenthotline.com.

Thanks for listening and we will see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Pet Parent Hotline. If you enjoyed the show, don't keep it to yourself. Text a friend right now with a link and tell them I've got a show that you need to hear. And ask them to let you know what they think. And remember, your pet's best life starts with you living yours. So be sure to take good care of yourself this week and your pets.