There is no doubt that for a child who already can walk, a cat, as well as any other pet, may be a kind of teaching aid: a child will look after the animal, take care of it. Children learn to understand animals and, with a certain degree of responsibility (for example, for feeding and combing), acquire self-confidence. If your cat is female children early learn about sexual life, birth of progeny and care about little ones. Your choice of breed does not matter here.
Do not buy a cat for your children if you yourself do not like these animals because in a family one of the parents will have to undertake the main responsibilities to take care of the cat... This task is impossible to lay on children: at the worst they will soon get used to the new "toy", and at the best they will be so carried away by something else that will forget to feed or comb the cat. May be this change of interests is not very important for them but for the cat and its well-being it is quite important. And never buy a cat for a present to your friends' children without permission from their parents. Perhaps there are certain reasons that do not allow them to keep the animal and you may not know anything about it.
It is very important to rule out any ill-treatment of a cat; usually it happens because of ignorance how to treat animals (you can't endlessly squeeze and caress a cat) or because of carelessness and wrong ideas about pleasure. It is necessary to make children understand that in any case they should treat pets the way they themselves would like to be treated and they to show how to do it. Conscious violence towards animals is usually characteristic of those children who also are ill-treated.
Children aged 3 to 6 should be seated comfortably and only then given a cat to hold, otherwise they may drop it, especially if the animal is restless in their hands or (if it's a kitten) tries to scratch or bite.
Children too young to walk may have some problems with cats. "Crawlers" and babies hardly standing in the playpen love to stroke cats, and the latter like it as well. But an adult must be near at all times. If a baby pulls a cat's tail, pulls its hair or by chance steps on the animal the cat may attack (aggression caused by pain). Very small children (under two years of age) have a natural habit to grab things suddenly which makes kittens nervous.
Besides, a cat may carry a number of diseases transferred from animals to man which is especially dangerous for children because they tend to put fingers and different objects to mouth. Among such diseases are peritonitis and toxoplasmosis.
One should make sure cats and children do not have any access to each other's food, it is also impossible that a cat licks a baby's face. After playing with a cat a child must wash hands and should never put them in mouth before washing. Little babies and "crawlers" should not be let close to a cat's tray, and a children's sandpit should be kept covered when children do not play in it, otherwise a cat may use it a s toilet. Cat's excrements should be moved away immediately, especially if they have appeared somewhere where children are playing.
N. Nepomniashchiy. "Keeping a cat"