By Emily P

Should kids have siblings? Maybe, maybe not. Find out pros and cons of having siblings here in this persuasive essay. I hope after reading this, you start looking at your siblings in a different light.

Let’s start with the pros. I think that having siblings is good for you because there is evidence to suggest that healthy sibling relationships encourage empathy, prosocial behavior and better performance in school. Sometimes, siblings tell each other things that they don’t feel comfortable sharing with other family members. Other times, they might just need help with some homework. Siblings can also influence your activities and lifestyle in a positive way, like getting you to read more, or even getting into an instrument or sport. Since siblings are usually friends with one another, they can support each other and help each other. This helps them become more social and learn new skills such as sharing and kindness. These are life lessons that can benefit people for their whole life. Siblings can be very fun and can help you with many aspects of life.

What about the cons of having siblings? While healthy sibling relationships can be a great source of support, noxious and harmful sibling relationships may be adverse and destabilizing. One source of stress can be when adults compare one sibling to another. This destroys the self-esteem of the sibling who feels criticized and strains the siblings’ friendship. Some only children say that they like that all the parents’ attention is paid only to them. Because of that they don’t have to share toys or personal space with a sibling. They get more extravagant things than people who have siblings, because their parents don’t have to buy toys for multiple children. People who are their parents’ only children don’t have to share a room with anyone, whereas families with more than one child usually have siblings sharing rooms.In short, siblings can influence your life in a positive or negative way. You can have a life-time friend, a life-time enemy, or something in between. If you already have siblings, the power is in your hands to figure out all the creative ways to get along with them and gain a lifetime friend. If you don’t have a sibling yet, you can give some hard thinking if you want to have siblings. Or you can think of how you appreciate not sharing your space or your toys with a sibling.

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