Parenting: Teaching Children to Treat Animals with Kindness
Many may not care, but when animals are hit or treated like they are worthless non-living things, I can’t help but feel disturbed.
Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, I know humans tend to not care about animals. Especially if they live in the city, where positive interactions with animals are minimal.
Still, I strongly feel ‘awareness to treat animals with basic care’ must start with us.
Do we let our children pull the wings of a butterfly or crush ladybugs with their fingers just because they want to see how they’d die?
Do we let them kick cats / dogs as they walk past them?
Do we let them rattle animal cages or knock on aquariums because they feel like it?
Children need to learn to have a ‘heart’ for animals, if it’s not yet naturally ‘in them’.
We can’t stop the world from mistreating animals, but when we see anyone treating animals recklessly, I feel we need to say or do something to stop and educate them, ESP. If they are our own children.
I’ve seen parents who saw their children mistreat animals (eg. Shake their cage every now and then, or scream at an animal in a cage), and they don’t do or say anything.
Others who do say something, may say something like, ‘Don’t lah … leave it alone’, but then that’s it. The child continued to mistreat the animal =(
..
When we see anyone treating animals recklessly, I feel we need to say or do something to stop and educate them, ESP. If they are our own childrenSome of the things that I’ve done to teach my children about the need to be kind to animals:
– Talk about animals positively (eg. When seeing them on TV, magazines or books)
– Regularly instill the need to be kind to animals and to never abuse them
– Be a living example
– Share some stories (of people abusing animals) that we’ve come across (age appropriate) and tell them why it’s wrong to be mean towards animals
– Whenever I spot my children not treating animals kindly, I’d immediately and firmly tell them to stop. If they continue (so far never happens), I’d personally come and physically take them away from the animals, and firmly tell them off.
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We are after all tasked to look after this world and God’s creation big and small, yes?
I am not a vegetarian.
I don’t love ‘all’ animals, because some are ‘pests’, like rats or roaches. Nevertheless, getting rid of them/killing them should not be equal to torturing them just for fun.
Food for thought.
