Why is it Okay For a Cat to Answer the Needs of Her Babies?

Our cat had babies a couple days ago.

It was beautiful.

She has seven kittens.  When we woke up, 5 were already born.

We got to see the last 2 be born and it was such a wonderful experience for the kids and me!!

She has been such a great little momma cat.

She feeds them when they want and if any of them meow, she is there in a second to help it out!!

When a new human is around, she watches them like a hawk to make sure her babies are treated properly.

If we are holding one of the babies and the baby cries (meows), she makes it known we need to give the baby back to her.

When all the kittens are sleeping and one begins to squirm around and cry and seems uncomfortable, she puts her arm around it to comfort it.  When she does this, it immediately stops crying and squirming.

And we, her humans, give her praise.

We tell her how good of a little momma cat she is, because of how attentive she is to her babies.

Now, let’s take a look at how all that would go if it were a human mom and her baby.

If we nurse our baby whenever she cries or seems hungry, we are catering to the baby’s wishes too much.

If we are “there in a second” when we hear our baby cry, we are told we will spoil the child.

If a stranger comes around our baby and we watch our baby like a hawk like our cat did, then we are being paranoid.  I mean, come on, not all people are bad!

If someone else is holding our baby when he begins to cry and we ask to have the baby back, we are made to feel silly.  Silly, mom… you don’t have to take care of the baby when it cries.  Again, you will spoil it.  Just let the strange person he doesn’t know hold him and let him cry.  It’s okay if you know how he wants to be held to feel comfortable, or that he may want to nurse.  Let the other person continue to hold your baby.

If our baby is sleeping and she begins to cry and squirm in her sleep, we are expected to leave her alone to figure out how to sooth herself on her own.

Other wise… Yep… You guessed it.  We might spoil the baby.

Okay… Here’s my question:  Why is it okay… no… not just okay, but praise worthy… for a momma cat to take care of her kittens in such a way, but if we do those same things with a human baby, we are going to spoil it?

I’m here to tell you, I will ALWAYS be in favor of spoiling our children!

Even today, if my 13 year old cries in her sleep, I will STILL go to her room to make sure she is okay!!

I will apologize to no one for that.

My 3 kids were nursed on demand (meaning, whenever they wanted to) for over 2 years.  They slept in our bed until they were 2 or 3 and then after that, they were still welcome to come sleep with us anytime they wanted.

If our kids cried, we were right there to try our best to figure out why they were crying and fix it the best we knew how.

If a stranger was/is around, you better believe I have a more keen eye on my children!

If someone else was holding my baby and he/she cried, I was more apt to take the baby from them.  Not because I didn’t think they could sooth my child, but because it was instinct to do so.  I will admit, though, that instinct became less as they grew older.  And even less with future children.  I think, as humans, we learn how to receive help from others, and that is a good thing.

With all this extra attention our kids got, you would think they were spoiled brats that could never leave our side.

Not the case.

In fact, our kids are very well behaved, independent children.

So, why is it that the same people that tell me I will spoil my kids don’t scold their cat for answering her kittens every cry?

If you ask me, we could all learn a thing or two from our kitty friends and be more attentive to our children.