Considering a pet fish for your kids? Don’t fret – we’ve got you covered! Here are the easy steps to buy a pet fish at PetSmart.
This is a partnered post with PetSmart. All opinions are my own.
Now that our youngest is starting school, we wanted to offer him some more responsibility. After all, he is a “big boy” now. So we went fishing for the perfect pet – a Male Betta from PetSmart!
How to Buy a Pet Fish
The friendly staff helped us select our new addition and gave us some helpful hints on how to take care of him. We let L pick out his habitat, including decorations and food. He was so excited to get his very own pet fish and decided to name him Little Star!
Allowing children to take responsibility for an animal is so important because it teaches them the value of life. Young children are so “ME-centric” that they rarely think about how their actions affect others. By giving them the responsibility of a pet, they learn lessons that will help them as they mature. It teaches children kindness, timeliness, thoughtfulness, and unconditional love… not to mention the importance of routines and even math skills, like measuring food and charting the growth of their pet.
L is so excited to feed Little Star, and often just sits and watches or talks to him. This interaction helps children to socialize and gives L an outlet to express himself. It also helps us to teach L the importance of taking care of someone else, fish or human. If L forgets to feed Little Star, that is an important conversation that we as parents can have with him.
Schools all over the world are on the little creature trend, inviting pets into the classroom to teach students responsibility and to add to the curriculum.
My favorite is the tadpole. From this little fish-like creature, you can teach the class about metamorphosis while the students literally watch the tadpole change into a frog. Another favorite is a butterfly! Getting a caterpillar and having the class watch the life cycle first hand, and then releasing the beautiful butterfly into the sky is really awe-inspiring.
When introducing a pet into the home or classroom, it is important to share the responsibilities with the children so they can take an active role in the upkeep of the pet. Whether their role is cleaning out the cage, changing out the water, or feeding the pet, trusting children to do the job and holding them accountable is a life lesson that will benefit them for years to come.
What pet did you have when you were growing up, either at home or in school? Did you take an active role in the taking care of it? What lessons did you learn?
HilLesha says
I used to have fish when I was a child. I also had a few dogs and cats when growing up, too. Right now, I have two parakeets and one dog.
Valerie Remy-Milora (@vremilora) says
Pets are such a wonderful way to teach responsibility to our children! We’ve always had dogs, then came cats, an adorable chinchilla.. and of course fish! The latest addition is a pair of turtles my college bound daughter received for her birthday… She clearly can’t takes those across the US to Canada and into her dorm room but my 8 year old is eager to inherit the responsibility of their care 🙂
Jennifer says
Now that’s a house full! I also had 2 tortoises growing up!
Rachel @RunningRachel says
This is great. We let our oldest have a pet fish when he was younger… but he wasn’t responsible enough for it. Maybe, just maybe, we will try it again after reading this. 🙂
Jennifer @ Mom Spotted says
We have fish and got our tank from PetSmart too! They have such great selections! We love their dog section too!
Jennifer says
That’s awesome – thanks for sharing your experience too.
Crystal says
What a great way to teach responsibility. Pets have added a lot to our family, and teaching responsibility is part of that.
Bridget A says
My kid used to have a fish. They loved it!
Michelle says
Fish are perfect for first pets! The Petsmart employees have always been so helpful when picking out fish.
Liz Mays says
What a great new friend for the family! This is always an effective way to teach responsibility.
Ashley says
I’ve been thinking about getting my daughter a fish lately. It would be a good lesson in responsibility!
Elizabeth @ Being MVP says
Ah we love going to PetSmart! However, all the kids’ fish from there haven’t survived 🙁
Jennifer says
Oh that’s no good!
Ashlee says
Thanks for this, we’ve been thinking about getting Addie a pet fish lately
Jennifer says
You are welcome! I recommend the beta fish as it’s a low maintenance fish.
Robin Rue (@massholemommy) says
We had fish from Petsmart at one point (this was years ago and they are long gone now) and not only did they have everything we needed to get set up, the employee that helped us was super helpful and spent a lot of time with us explaining what we needed and how to care for our fishes.
Jennifer says
That’s awesome Robin – thanks for sharing your experience.