Did your parents have a favourite child?

Yes, and it most definitely wasn’t me!
To be fair I don’t think she was overly keen on either of us, but if she could have only plucked one of us out of the path of a speeding train, it wouldn’t have been me!
Yes, I’m sure it affected me, but I’m long over it, and haven’t spoken to her in years.

She’d have sworn to her dying day that she didn’t, but my mother definitely did - the one boy out of four.
I don’t think my father ever did.

Not exactly favourite the way you describe it*songstress*. I feel for you.
For us it was more ‘Boys are best’. My sister and I tackled that different ways. I went the “anything he can do, I can do better” and she did the “think that if you like, I don’t care’ way. The problem was that my brother thought he was better too and when he was older, he didn’t understand why we didn’t include him in our gatherings.
Now we communicate quite amicably-possibly helped by the distance between us.

I am amazed that the middle daughter became the favourite. My husband and I are both the middle of three and we always knew we would never, ever, have three children. In my family the youngest was definitely the favourite and still is. My mother is very elderly but her first thoughts in any situation are concerned with how my younger sister will be affected and she always makes excuses for her. We don’t have a favourite. It’s easier perhaps because we have a boy and a girl. I have a friend who has 4 grown up sons but I know which is her favourite from the way she talks about her sons and him in particular. My father’s mother also had favourite grand children - needless to say it wasn’t me and my sisters!

Yes, I’m the youngest of a big family and was everybody’s favourite child. It does get a bit irksome being referred to as “our baby” in your 20s though

Yep and it definitely wasn't me either.

Baby brother was right up till mum died! We are over it now but it caused an awful lot of trouble at one stage.

We have 5 children and don't have favourites. They all have their different attributes and drawbacks.

Yes me!

Not in the way you describe songstress60 but I was the youngest of 5 with 5 years between me and the next youngest and 12 years younger than my eldest brother.

I think I was my siblings favourite too just because I was so much younger than them and a curly headed cutie!! I was spoilt by them all

I had an older brother who was very much a loner. Spent most of his time in his room with his nose in a book and didn't interact with the family.
Mum and dad didn't understand him
I was the favourite, I find that sad.

My brother was and still is the favourite. I had a brief spell in the sun while I had cancer, but I am back to being the black sheep now.

My mother always favours boys. Bro was the favourite, ridiculously, of my 2 cats, the boy cat was favourite. Unfortunately for my mother, due to the issues between me and her and my brothers family, she has only seen my darling grandson a couple of times. She would have adored him, he is ALL boy.

Yes, and it was not me.
With a gap of 5 years before I was born, and a gap of 5 years before my brother was born, I do not think either of us where eagerly awaited,growing up we had no reason to think differently.
My brother still quite bitter about it,I have let it go, when my two daughters died, that paled into insignificance .

I am fairly sure I was the favourite. There were just the two of us, me and my elder brother, and I was much more amenable and generally easy than he was. My father always said that they could take me anywhere, whereas my brother might easily embarrass them. I was also better at my school work, something that was very important to my parents.

They tried desperately hard not to show their preference, but brother was certainly very jealous of me when we were children. It all evened out as we grew up, and I think by the time we were adults we were fairly equal in our parents’ eyes.

I have two sons, and I don’t think I really have a favourite. They have different good points. I’m afraid I definitely have a favourite grandchild! I don’t think anyone knows, though. I hope not.

My brother is the favourite, I dont mind now as he is the one that is always asked to do things for my mother as she assumes being a man is more capable than the girls in the family.

My sister was the favourite. Four years older than me.

I don't think my father ever forgave me for not being a boy! My mother refused to have any more children so that was that.

It didn't really bother me very much.

I was just thrilled when many years later an uncle, ( not related) asked me how it had been growing up with my sister being the favourite.

I didn't think anyone else had noticed!

My brother was my mum's favourite growing up and he still is, despite making a mess of his life. She still tells everyone how good he is. The family know different. He was the darling of my gran too. I was petted and loved until he was born when I was four, then I was ignored. My dad and grandpa did what they could and I suppose I became a daddy's girl. I hope I don't favour either of my children over the other but it would be hard to know.

I was born to my parents straight after the war, when my siblings - two sisters and a brother - were adults; working, in fact. It’s true to say I was the apple of my father’s eye (though not my mother’s). Until, that is, my nephew, the first grandson, was born and then I had my nose pushed seriously out of joint, as I watched my father make a tremendous fuss of him and ignore me (he absolutely didn’t, but that’s the way my jealous, fevered child’s imagination had it!). He’s not much younger than me, but as we grew I set out to prove to my father that I was a better ‘boy’ than Michael was, which put my mother’s nose seriously out of joint as she was desperate for me to show some vestige of femininity, and had my grandmother on her case to that effect! It all came out right in the end?!

I don’t think my mum had a favourite but she did have a better relationship with my younger sister than she did with me. I was the ‘test’ child being the first - they learned how to do things with me and were well practised by the time my sister came along!
I don’t resent it but I do understand it.
I have three children and do my very best not to have a favourite. They are all amazing in different ways.

It was definitely my brother who was the favourite with my mother. Even when she needed care in her final years, most of which I provided, he could do no wrong and I could do no right!

I think we love all our children equally, but when it comes to “liking” it’s different .....that depends on the child’s personality.

It’s funny how I never thought to resent it at the time, but although money was tight, my mother was desperate for my brother to go to boarding school (it was really a snob thing with her) and he did. Her earnings, once she eventually returned to work, went towards the fees. They were relatively a lot cheaper then, but even so...

Whereas I, who had a free grammar school place, could never be spared the 7/6d an hour for the riding lessons I wanted so badly for a few years.

Not that it bothers me at all now (and I get on fine with my brother) but one reason dh and I only had 2 children was because we had both come from families with 4 children where money was always tight, so we couldn’t have things that many other kids did - and in fact never even bothered asking for, because we knew the answer would be no.

I'm the only child and my DM was an only child too. No problems about favouritism except that my maternal GP's spoilt me rotten - when they had been really strict with her. I was the favourite even though a generation apart!

downtoearth

Yes, and it was not me.
With a gap of 5 years before I was born, and a gap of 5 years before my brother was born, I do not think either of us where eagerly awaited,growing up we had no reason to think differently.
My brother still quite bitter about it,I have let it go, when my two daughters died, that paled into insignificance .

What a terrible loss for you, I’m so sorry.

My brother was definitely favourite. He could do no wrong in her eyes ...'oh poor ......, everything goes wrong for him' she'd say. No, he did some very foolish things and to this day he still does. Mum definitely drove a wedge between us.

Yes and it was me. I was the 5th out of 6 children. To the others I was goody two shoes.
I stayed at home the longest, my father always said I was my mother’s best friend as well as her daughter.

I was probably the favourite, rather than my late older sister, four years my senior. She was a very reserved child but more compliant than me. Due to surgery for an umbilical hernia repair, I was rather indulged when young, I think. It appeared that my father liked the fact that I was more like his side of the family, especially his spirited sister, whom I admired for her glamour, but whom my mother regarded as being "no better than she should be"!!