Can kitten with a difficult background became a good family pet?

[sunshinealltheway]

I am posting here looking for some advice from people who know about cats.

We have been thinking of getting a kitten to become a family pet for a while now. We contacted Cat Protection to get a rescue kitten (we have an eight year old so wanted a kitten to play and bond well with youngest child in the house. Older child is 16 and not that interested!).

We have had a home visit and been to view a kitten whose history is this: Born in a house with no human contact for 3 weeks, then Mum Cat was rescued but kittens not found, so then a week without Mum whilst CPL searched for kittens, then kittens found - so back with Mum, then 3 weeks with Mum and the wonderful lady from CPL.

Kitten is relaxed when being handled by CPL lady but did not want to be held by (gentle!) eight year old when we viewed. The kitten went and hid after the CPL lady took it back as it struggled to get away from the eight year old.

So my question is "Can a nervous kitten become a family pet?" We are prepared to put the work in to socialise the kitten but I work three days per week and children are at school...

I do know that a cat's personality will depend on both nature and nurture and you don't know whether a cat will be happy to be petted and fussed over, it may not be that type. But should I wait for a kitten that has not had such a turbulent time? Will the nervousness we saw on the viewing go away?

If I was homing just for myself I would not hesitate, but I would really like my youngest to have a good relationship with the cat.

Any advice or thoughts about this would be much appreciated.

Cats are so different from each other. I've had one, born outside and caught at 12 weeks old, who was laid back and loving. Another, rescued much younger, was scared of people for the rest of his life. It's not all down to early experiences, some traits are inherited.

I have a 4 month old kitten who came to us at 7 weeks. She lived in a house with many animals, riddled with fleas, and had survived thanks to Mum cat who had scavenged food from bins and neighbours to feed herself and the kittens.

9 weeks on, and she is doing brilliantly.
Still nervous around people who visit and a little wary of dh, but she has such a close bond with dd (12).
It has been a joy to see the relationship between them grow. Kitten sits on dd's knee when she does her homework and waits outside her bedroom door each morning until dd wakes up and lets her in.