Pet Time?

My daughters have been pestering me to adopt a cat or a kitten as a pet for the longest time. I know and experienced first hand the benefits of having a pet, having had two dogs and a cat as pets before. However, we are faced with the following challenges, starting with the simplest to the most difficult:
1. we are living on a high floor but not a problem, can get invisible grille for the windows.
2. the flat is full of breakable stuff, including my mother's antiques but can re-organise them into display cupboards or can adopt a senior cat which is less likely to jump up and down(?)
3. the girls have never looked after anything before, not sure if they will step up to the challenge or just throw the responsibility back to me or worse, to my mother (their maternal grandmother) after a while.
4. their father hates animals and has often told the girls that animals are dirty and dangerous. That is the most difficult challenge for me, an animal hater (and a potential abuser?) if we ever decide to have a pet.