Finances, career, work… Many factors tend to stress families. Between the pet and the child, which causes the most stress for parents? Researchers have looked into the subject.
On a daily basis, certain situations have the gift of stressing people out: missing their train, subway or bus to get to work, having their bag or cell phone stolen, arriving late for an appointment or learning something bad. new… For parents, another level of stress is added when there are children or a pet which enter into the balance. So put like that, it makes sense. Often, when becoming a parent or owner of a dog or cat, classic anxieties arise. The fear of doing wrong, of not understanding one’s needs or of not knowing how to manage possible whims, for example.
But do you know, which of the child or the pet causes the parents more stress? A recent study, conducted by the OnePoll institute on behalf of the American company ElleVet Sciences with 2,000 pet owners, took a serious look at the issue during Animal Welfare Month across the Atlantic. And the main conclusion drawn may well surprise you.
According to the investigation, several factors tend to stress parents’ livesstarting first with the household finances, for 54% of those questioned. In second place are career and work in general and in third place, we find the well-being of the pet (42%), ahead of that of the children (30%). Clearly, taking care of your cat would be more stressful than managing a child on a daily basis. This can be partly explained by the unique place that the animal occupies in the heart of its owner, even if he is also the parent of a child. In the study, about 7 in 10 people (73%) said their four-legged friend was the “protector.”
As if it were the umpteenth child in the family, pet owners worry more about the health of their dog or cat, particularly with regard to their digestion, their ability or not to play and enjoy life, and heart health of the animal, reports the study. Another element, and not the least, 68% of the parents surveyed affirmed that watching their pet age and suffer would hurt them even more than losing an expensive item (62%), their job (61%) or divorcing their partner (61%).
Moreover, to a completely different extent, some people make the lifestyle choice to have a pet rather than a child. This is particularly the case of the journalist Hélène Gateaucurrently promoting the release of his book Why I chose to have a dog (and not a child)Albin Michel editions.