In the past as a child I had birds and guinea pigs. I had fish as my first pets with my kids. We had them for 2 years but cleaning the aquarium was really time consuming, especially when you go on holiday, you have to be careful not over feed them or you have to find someone who can come to your house to feed the fish and clean the aquarium every 3 days. A goldhamster was our second and she lived for 2 years. Very easy to take care of. I am also scared of rats and mice as I jump immediatey on a chair when I see a mouse. But a goldhamster is so different. they dont have that long tail. They have lots of hair and walk a bit slower. The kids loved to play with the hamster and put the goldhamster in their toys, like cars. If your daughters have a doll house, they can put the goldhamster in their doll house :-D. Goldhamsters can have many things as a toy like toilet paper for their bed. They eat the same as human but without sugar and salt. My goldhamster loves unsalted peanuts, mango, cucumber and boiled pasta :-). With fish you can't really play but they are nice to look at :-). I left our goldhamster for 2 weeks alone and she was still alive and healthy when we came back. we just gave her lots of food which I hided in her cage everywhere, so she could do some effort to look for her food. I also gave her fresh water and a large bucket with sand, because she likes to roll in it like other hamsters. She also just used 1 corner as her toilet. With fish it's different, they use their toilet in the water and it will smell after a few days. With goldhamster it doesn't smell that easily. But I guess having fish as a pet is very common to have as a first pet :-). We would like to have a little chichuahua in the future. Kids should indeed get in touch with animals, play with them and learn to take care of them.

(her mouth full of collected peanuts)