THE FAVORITE CHILD

Why do parents favor a child over the other? Some would feel indignant and say, “of course not!” Or some may stay silent but in their minds, they think that they are not one of those parents

I do not know how it feels to favor another child over the other because only have one, but I have felt that my mother and other relatives favored my brother over me. I think this is the most disastrous thing that could happen to a family. Children are affected in such a way that they always seem to fall short of their parents expectations and are always compared to the favored child. This usually ends in low self esteem and sibling rivalry. Sometimes this lasts until the children become adults that it is so petty and silly really.

I think this is not a question of how much one is loved more than the other, because I don’t think any parent would love a child a little less than the other. I think this “favoring” thing is circumstantial, or subjective depending on the situation.

Some parents may be seen favoring a child when he is performing well at school and he is being praised and probably gets more rewards for being one. Or a specific child probably always goes with mommy to the store because he behaves better than the other.

When we were children we felt that way – that our parents favored a child over the other. Now that it’s our turn to be parents we say that we love all of them equally. I am not sure how this issue can be resolved because this has been on going for the longest time with the same complaints and still a lot of children feel that way. And still a lot of parents will not admit that they actually do favor one child over the other.

Thank God I’ve only got one. :)