Should Children Be Told Their Pet Will Die Some Day? [poll]

There are many challenges parents having when raising kids, not the least of these is answering children's questions about life, knowing what to tell them or not to tell them and when they should be told. A Dear Abby reader recently asked for advice about whether or not to tell the children their pet is going to die some day.

We recently shared the story of Jacobe, a Grand Junction youth who's dog was killed while the family was out of town. The death of a pet is always difficult, regardless of your age, but can be especially hard on children.

When you get your child his or her first pet, should you tell the child right then that the animal isn't going to live forever?Do you simply wait until the child asks, or until they have to deal with the heartbreak of losing their pet?

Abby says:

If your children are young, let them enjoy having a pet to love without worrying about the fact that its life span may not be forever. If you do, they will learn about responsible pet ownership in good time, as well as the responsibility that comes when the pet becomes so old or sick that it can no longer enjoy life."

Do you agree with Abby's advice? Or do you think kids should be hit with the hard, cold truth right from the beginning?

I'm no expert, but it seems that common sense many times will dictate how to handle this situation. Obviously, there is a young age where children have no concept of death and so to tell them their pet is going to die is pointless. They aren't going to understand it anyway.

Then there is an age where kids have a better understanding of death. They have witnessed it on TV, they have read about it, and maybe even experienced it in their own families or in the lives of their peers. In some cases, learning about death is like learning about sex. It just kind of happens, often times before the parent is ready to have that conversation.

I remember having pets as a kid....a dog who had to be given away because we were moving, a cat that disappeared while we were gone on a weekend trip, and a cat that got run over in the street.(R.I.P., Snowball) I don't think my parents ever told me our pets were going to die - I just knew. I knew it was possible, and I knew it was inevitable. As a three or four year old, no I don't think I knew. But, by the time I was in kindergarten I think I was aware that pets - like people - would one day die.