I ask this because of a conversation I had with my mother the other day. I was debating what age to purchase a pet for my son. Right now he is still too young and it would be a financial mess to add another mouth to feed. But as I had grown up with one I would like my son to have the knowledge of the responsibility of a pet.
My mother's response to this was "why not get him one of those virtual animals?" True they do have a long line of pets now from Fur real friends to Zu-Zu pets but can a child really learn responsibility with such toys?
Feeding, walking, cleaning up, making sure their pet stays healthy and the eventual what happens when your cherished pet dies is stuff that these virtual pets cannot mimic. Some think this is a good thing for many reasons. And I admit myself the pros to having a robotic type pet vs real pet are legitimate. It just troubles me that there may be a day where people actually prefer faux pets to real animals.
It is not easy being a pet person it is essentially caring for another life even though some people fail to get that and many animals suffer from it. I would like to think I could raise my son to respect any animal we brought into our lives. But I do have that little voice in the back of my mind saying "you know with a faux pet he can have all the fun and Id get the easy out." No cleaning up behind him, no large pet food bills, no vet bills and no explaining why Rover had to be buried.
It is a very tough cross road that I am looking at on the one hand Id love to see my child enjoy a real pet one day. On the other side the thought of the fun of a pet with the ease of none of the real pet burdens looms over head.
So anyone else have thoughts on this topic? Id love to hear what you all think about the virtual, faux and robotic pets craze.
My mother's response to this was "why not get him one of those virtual animals?" True they do have a long line of pets now from Fur real friends to Zu-Zu pets but can a child really learn responsibility with such toys?
Feeding, walking, cleaning up, making sure their pet stays healthy and the eventual what happens when your cherished pet dies is stuff that these virtual pets cannot mimic. Some think this is a good thing for many reasons. And I admit myself the pros to having a robotic type pet vs real pet are legitimate. It just troubles me that there may be a day where people actually prefer faux pets to real animals.
It is not easy being a pet person it is essentially caring for another life even though some people fail to get that and many animals suffer from it. I would like to think I could raise my son to respect any animal we brought into our lives. But I do have that little voice in the back of my mind saying "you know with a faux pet he can have all the fun and Id get the easy out." No cleaning up behind him, no large pet food bills, no vet bills and no explaining why Rover had to be buried.
It is a very tough cross road that I am looking at on the one hand Id love to see my child enjoy a real pet one day. On the other side the thought of the fun of a pet with the ease of none of the real pet burdens looms over head.
So anyone else have thoughts on this topic? Id love to hear what you all think about the virtual, faux and robotic pets craze.
