The Humour Club discussion

Last year, I read an interesting article (which, alas, I can no longer find) where the writer (a mother of six) insisted that every parent favors a certain child, whether they will admit it or not.

For those of you with more than one...well, do you?

For those of you with one or fewer children - did your parents display favoritism? Were you the favorite, or was it a sibling who received all of mom & dad's attention?

Is this a good or bad thing?

I suspect that a lot of parents favour other people's children, in the mistaken belief that they can't possibly be as horrible as their own.

No. I can't STAND other people's children. They are all either monsters or boring as dry toast. There was one neighborhood boy I sort of liked. He took pinecones from my yard, then attempted to sell them back to me at 50 cents a cone. I admired his cunning and his entrepreneurial spirit, but he moved elsewhere.

I can't say that I have a "favorite" child. As Kyle said, they are both remarkably different, and I love and admire different things about each of them.

However...I have more in common with my older son. When I spend time alone with the younger boy, there seems a bit of a struggle to come up with things to talk about.

I was an only child, so I can only assume my parents preferred me to oh, say, one of the cats or dogs.

My husband came from a family with four children, and his mother made no secret that the oldest - the only girl, and the youngest - her baby, were her favorites...leaving the middle two kind of out in the cold. So now that she's getting on in years, it seems only fair to me that the "favs" be the ones to take care of her.

Completely with Melki here, other peoples children are rubbish.

I think of the two "children" in my household, I prefer my daughter to her father ;P

I treat my boys equitably, which is not to say equally, as they are different ages and have different needs. I love them both to bits, but sometimes I LIKE on better than the other. Which is which changes on a regular basis depending on which is being a bigger pain in the butt (or, conversely, which is being super-sweet in order to get something--though only the younger does that. That kind of manipulation requires empathy, which Eldest Son, with his Aspergers, pretty much lacks).

My kids. One is like wine, the other is like beer. Both are wonderful things in small doses...but, mix them together and I end up with a headache and a hangover.

I haven't decided who my favourite is yet. I'll wait until the third comes in January, give that one a few years to earn my valued love and affection...then I'll probably auction off the title of 'favourite', unless there is one clear winner.

I occasionally tell mine they can earn temporary "favorite son" status by doing chores, as in - "If you weed by the mailbox, you'll be my FAVORITE son today."

The younger one almost always falls for it. The older one just goes back to Facebookin'.

I certainly do, having only one child and all.

Doesn't having a favourite foster a healthy sense of competition?
You could, in fact, be helping your children learn some very important life skills by pitting them against one another...it's a tough world out there, especially in the academic, business, and fast food world. You want your kid to come out on top.