Do you have a favourite child/grandchild?

We used to go sailing in a little Mirror dinghy with three children. We all wore life jackets, but I used to worry about how two of us could hold on to three children - and I could not swim!

No, they are both loved equally.

Agree, Harri.
I get on with my DCs and DGCs in different ways, but the love for them all is the same.

I am very close to my three year old grandson, both in terms of physical proximity and emotionally. I expect to have a similar relationship with his new baby brother. My older grandchildren live a long distance away and I haven't seen them for many years; and in the case of my youngest granddaughter I have never met her. And yet.......the emotional attachment feels just as strong now as when we were in a relationship. I think about them frequently - and sometimes I look at my grandson, who adores me, and feel devastated that my older grandchildren are missing out on what could be a very special relationship. So, no favourites, but practically speaking I am closer, at the moment, to one of my grandchildren more than the others.

I loved, and still love my children equally, and feel the same about my grandchildren.

However looking at it from the bottom up, so to say, DGD loves both her grandmothers and DH (an only grandfather) is definitely DGS favourite grandparent. However all are beaten into a cocked hat by DD, If she is present the rest of the family might as well go home. She is a real babe magnet, literally, and always has been, small children are inexorable drawn to her.

She is single and childless by choice and after about an hour we have to rescue her and administer tea before she returns to the fray!

All loved equally! All have different characters, of course, which makes it easier to 'connect' with certain ones, as shysal says. It's also perhaps easier for some of our grandchildren to connect with their other grandparents. I know that one set are looked on as being more 'set in their ways' than I am, and another set are more dominant (not domineering, I hasten to add!) than I am.

Yes love them all the same just cut me into 7 different pieces and spread me about,I couldn't imagine loving one more than the other it would never occur to me,but then liking one more than the other (sometimes) has happened when having a "teenage hormonal blip" but soon forgotten.

My children are all totally different and sometimes I like some more than others but I love them all equally. The same with my grandchildren. They are all great in their different ways and I'm sure the next two will be loved just as much. I don't feel the same about my two step grandchildren as they are 18 and 21 and we don't see that much of them. My two 'sort of' grandchildren are much loved, despite it being very embarrassing for the elder one who is 13!

The is a very special bond between our eldest grandson (6 in 2 weeks) and his uncle (DS1) who is unlikely to have any children of his own. They really enjoy each others company and like the same things.

My mother, on the other hand, adores my younger brother, dislikes his wife and thinks the sun shines out of his only daughter. Luckily, we all get on and they get teased an awful lot.

My mother in law used to ' like best' the one she was with or talking to. She employed the rule of divide and rule. She had had 7 children.

Horrible!!!

I love them all equally but at different times I like them less or more than each other. When they have been putting my daughter through the wringer or doing idiotic things that have gotten them into trouble I like them less, when they troop through the door with flowers or just call in on the off chance of catching me in I like them more.. but I love all of them with a passion and in the Summer when a new tiny baby arrives for my son no doubt my love will spread to this new grandchild too.

I adore my only granddaughter she was a delightful surprise and totally unexpected. She was my only grandchild for three years, so I like to think we have a special bond. My two DGS are very close in age and have very different personalities. Each one is a joy and I treasure the time I spend with them all.

I could never have made a choice between my two sons and I feel the same about my grandchildren.

Our fourth GC is due in May and I am looking forward to his/her arrival just as much as I did with the other three.

That's the thing about love, tanith! There's a never-ending supply of it when it comes to our children and grandchildren.

Marelli you are so right

They're all my favourites!

They are all so different and I love them all for different reasons. I tell my only granddaughter in this country that she's my favourite GD in the UK and to the one in Oz that she's my favourite GD in Australia. She now has a sister so I will have to change tactics! The boys are all wonderful little people and I love them all to bits. My own girls are all so different in character and so alike in looks and I love them equally. One is more openly caring which doesn't mean the others aren't- they just do it in a less obvious way. I always worried after having my first DD that I wouldn't have enough love to share with the 2nd and 3rd but nature's an amazing thing and of course I did.
My in-laws fell in love with DD1, their first gc and when DD2 arrived they referred to her as 'it'. I could have killed them. DD3 was the apple of their eye and thankfully 'it' finally got a name and was loved equally but it was very hurtful at the time.

No1 GD was very special, being the only one for almost 11 years and living near me. so I saw her all the time. But I adore the younger four just as much and wish I lived nearer to them. All five have such different personalities that I have a different relationship with each one. Big sister loves her younger sister and brother too and little sister thinks the sun shines out of her!

Love expands to fit the children (grandchildren) available.

Children know who is favourite. I found it altered with my daughters over the years and as to their children I do have a favourite and she knows it but I don't think the others know and if they do they never mention it. They are more interested in who is the favourite of their parents.

I am very disapproving of people showing favouritism amongst their children and grandchildren. Having been in a family with parents and grandparents who showed obvious favourtism I swore I would never do that to my children nor grandchildren. It is terribly hurtful and I ended up disliking three of my grandparents, especially my maternal grandmother who was also quite nasty to my younger brother, sister and me. What could we have done as babies or young children for her to dislike us so much.

I really am the proud grandmother of six wonderful grandchildren. I often think to myself, how lucky am I. They really are the highlight of my life and I often joke I get grandchild withdrawal symptoms if I don't get to see all of them enough.

I know some families where one child is "Mummy's" and the other is "Daddy's".
They think they are treating the children equally - but they are not, because it means that one is not Mummy's favourite, and the one is not Daddy's favourite.

Seven grandchildren: three girls and four boys. Seven different personalities. Loved equally.

When I was expecting my second child, I worried about whether I would love this child as much as I did the first. Of course I did. I had that same feeling when my second GC was on her way, especially as I am completely besotted with the first. Of course I do. I think ones heart just had loads of room to love loads of people.

Having a favourite and showing it are two different things. I observe among friends and family that some children are easy favourites but that's life. I have difficultly believing that you can have 6 GC and not have one amongst them whose company and companionship you prefer - if secretly.
It has little to do with the amount of love you have.

My parents had very obvious favourites and we all knew it. My GSs are too young for me to know if I would prefer one to the other, I don't yet.

My 3 DS are without doubt the best in the whole world but I know which one I would turn to if I wanted someone to fight for me, which one I would go to if I wanted to be organised and which one if I needed sympathy. Which I would choose to cook for me, which to help me choose an outfit and which for a deep debate. In the same way they know which parent to go to for advice about football and which one for any other advice