Building Confidence and Friendships
If you’re like any parent, you want your child to grow up feeling confident and having numerous friendships. While this may happen even if they don’t have a pet, ones who do have a much greater chance of meeting both these goals. Based on research from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, children who spend time playing with a pet often feel more confident in social situations.
While there could be many reasons for this, researchers believe the fact that the animal shows a child unconditional love no matter how many mistakes they may make has something to do with it.
In addition to this, pets also increase the likelihood of kids developing friendships. For example, shy children are often seen running up to other kids with pets, or groups of kids in a neighborhood may gather together to walk their dogs or even organize a pet talent show.