I would be curious to know if anyone has tried taking a Riekling home to see how their children reacted. If so, how did the kids behave? I know with the dwarven sphere the kids glitched out. I am curious if it is the same with the Riekling.

How do you even get them to follow you?

Thats easy, you get a stick and tie some boar meat to the end and wave it in front of their face.

Seriously, I thought the "pets" followed the kid home.

There's a quest involving Thirsk Mead Hall.

"YOU. FOL. LOW. ME."

And you can bring certain pet followers home, i.e. Bran or Scaelong and the kids will ask for them to stay in the house. Same for the Dwarven Sphere companion, but I've heard it glitches severely.

Really? I just killed them all when I got there. Speaking of which, the ending to that quest was a little disappointing. I really wanted to get my own mead hall.

So they can be full fledged followers?

I kill rieklings whenever i see one no questions asked.

Be careful if you let one into your home. Rieklings aren't housebroken.

In that case you should have helped the Rieklings.