How textbook my family feels – I am the youngest and was mum’s favourite and my eldest sister was my dad’s favourite. Poor old piggy in the middle got nothing (yes, we used to call her that…). Things did change once my parents divorced and my dad started another family – he prefered his subsequent daughter, then his stepdaughters (younger one first) before any of us original daughters. My oldest sister never got over it – still, at 46, she holds a grudge. Growing up, it seemed that my dad even prefered her to my mum (possibly true since they had problems long before they divorced)
I wonder if being a favourite (or not) influences how you feel about your own children.
Also I wonder if age differences have an influence as well – in my family my eldest sister was 4 years and 8 months and my middle sister was 1 year and 4 months when I was born, so we were all very close in age. To me the favourites seemed obvious and it must have been much easier for my parents to compare us. My children are 5 years 5 months apart and I find it hard to compare them therefore, I think, hard to have a favourite. My daughters will probably say different… In the article it talked about the parents denying they had a favourite and the author protesting that it was clear that they did – could it be that the favouritism is more subconcious and the parent really doesn’t know that they favour one child?
GQ!