Help with kitten and children

[NotAnotherBrick]

We just got a kitten, last week. She's very gentle and likes children. But our children will not leave her alone. They carry her carefully etc. but I'm very concerned it's going to soon become too much for her.

I have spent more time yelling at my children in the last week than I have in any other week of their lives, trying to get them to please only pick her up when she needs picking up, and otherwise let her come to them.

They're great at playing with her, btw.

I don't want to rehome her. I don't mind the hard work involved in having animals. We have chickens and if the children bother them we put them in the run, or make the children stay inside. But we have no facility to do this for the kitten, and she is too young to get neutered yet, so we can't let her out to escape the attention for a while!

Can anyone help!? I'm starting to worry that it might be less cruel to rehome her than to let her stay in this family with these otherwise very mature, grown up and sensible children. They love her so much, is the problem. They don't tease her, or be cruel to her, they are gentle - it's just the incessantness of if!

is there any way you can set up a safe zone for the kitten?

Does she seem upset at the picking up? How old are the dc?

I wouldn't worry if she doesn't seem upset. She'll go and hide under a bed or something if it gets too much.

I've had a couple of cats from a family with lots of young children and they've been really loving and affectionate and cuddly because they've been handled a lot from being tiny.

I have two 14wk old kitties and my DCs (5 & 2) won't leave them alone either...

TBH when they have had enough they just run away from them.

I have emphasised that they do not pick them up when they are sleeping/eating though...

Really? No, she doesn't get upset.

I can't make a safe zone for her - we would definitely have done that already if we could.

So you all reckon she's ok if she doesn't get upset? I just feel sorry for her being pestered so much!

My 5 and 7 yo carry her the way the books tell you. The 3 yo carries her like a fork lift truck - two arms under her abdomen. She doesn't appear to mind, and I think the 3 yo is too small to carry her the right way. Should we be stopping her carrying her until she can carry her better? Will it harm the kitten to be carried like that?

shouldn't do. My own lump of a boycat loves being held over one arm so his head is near the crook of my elbow while being stroked with the other hand in true Villain style.

Try this book - it's fantastic.
www.amazon.co.uk/Gentle-George-Bartholomew-Virginia-Miller/dp/0744563291/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283846326&sr=1-3.

If that doesn't work, it's Be Gentle by virginia Miller.

I'd get the cat something like this:

direct.tesco.com/q/R.205-4170.aspx

and make it clear to the children that she is NOT to be touched when she's in there. She can choose how much contact she can cope with, then.

I wouldn't worry too much ? as long as they are not being rough. When we got our kitten he was pulled from pillar to post, argued over (it's MY turn to have him on my lap) etc, but showed no signs of minding at all. I think all the handling got him used to people. He's now a hulking great ginger beast that still loves to snuggle right up into your neck. The kids and I ADORE him.

hello this sounds so familiar! I recently got a kitten thinking it would be a great playmate for my 4.5yo dd and I don't think there has been a day so far when I haven't had to tell her off remind her to be careful with him. The kitten Jack is fine with her but like you dd just won't leave him alone. We have had him a couple of months now and as he is quite big I am relaxing a bit more and also dd has finally calmed down around him. When he had had enough in the early days he used to hide under the sofa! I think perservere, kittens are tougher than they look, only tell them off if the kitten is in danger of being hurt and I would think in the next few weeks it should all calm down.

DD was a bit of a liability with our kittens when we first got them - I was surprised, as she was 5, quite a gentle and sensitive child, yet she was always doing stupid stuff like throwing a cushion at them (BIG cushion, tiny kittens). Unfortunately it took an accident to get it through to her that she COULD hurt them - she shut one's paw in the door. He was fine, but all the palaver of calling the vet and trying to coax him out from behind the sofa to check for broke bones etc seemed to really bring it home to DD.

He hasn't borne a grudge, he lets her pick him up and hoick him about, unlike his brother!