Chinese Zodiac for Kids and Parents

What does the Chinese zodiac have to tell us about our children — and how best to parent them?

Every parent strives to provide his or her child with the best (and most self-aware) support possible, and that objective encourages a process of seeking guidance from many sources of wisdom, including doctors and other child-rearing experts, family and friends. By knowing more about our children and how they are wired, we can hopefully parent them better, right? The Chinese zodiac can be another useful and entertaining source to find out more about our children’s natural attributes and charms — and give us parents some intelligence about how best to raise them to achieve their full potential.

Chinese New Year begins on Jan. 25, 2020, and children born during this year will be natives of the sign of the Rat (specifically the White Metal Rat). (Note: If you are expecting a new baby before Jan. 25, your child will be born in the prior Chinese Year of the Pig.)

In Chinese culture, rats were viewed as a sign of wealth and surplus (no doubt due in part to their prodigious rate of procreation!), and married couples prayed to them for children. Kiddos born in the sign of the Rat are sweet-natured, intelligent, inquisitive, resourceful, companionable and industrious. Read on to learn more about the adorable Rat child.

To discover more about your child’s personality and natural gifts, locate his or her date of birth and corresponding Chinese zodiac sign in the table below — read your own profile to see if you recognize the child within you!

May the year ahead bring your family the luck of the Rat!

Chinese Calendar 1991–2021

For complete tables, check the Wikipedia.org Chinese Zodiac entry.