Were you your parents' favorite?

My Father switched around his favorites a lot. But it was never my turn. He always liked someone else better.
I know most people won’t admit this, so I will. I was, and am, my mothers favorite.

I have been accused of being a “Daddy’s Girl”, but I don’t think that’s the case. I have still gotten in trouble, but I don’t make as big of a deal about my getting in trouble with my parents as one of my brothers (who likes calling me that) does… As a result, there are times when he seems convinced I am never told off for my behaviour when that is not true.

Nope. I am not sure who was though? There is a big gap between me and my older siblings so it is hard to judge who was the favourite. It wasn’t me though.

Nope. And my older sister used to rub it in my face. But honestly she wasn’t even my mom’s favourite…my oldest sister was and she didn’t want to be lol.

I was. My sister was and still is a wreck most of the time. She loves drama.
BTW, whenever one of my two daughters asks me who is the favorite, I always reply that I prefer their sister. Of course, they have figured it out, which has resulted in no longer asking the question.

Definitely not.

Interesting article. Currently reading page three. Being an only child though, I win by default, lawlz.
Still that’s messed up. I always heard about favorite kids, but I never thought it was all that true. :/ Not that I’m entirely surprised.

No way.

@Symbeline But you also lose by default – how effed up is that!? :)

Only for flickering moments at a time. Personally I loathe being considered the favorite, even for a moment (which tends to equate to weeks to me), attention of any sort has begun to disgust me especially from my parents.

For my mom, I was an only child so, like Symbeline, I won by default until my son was born then… poof!
For my dad, he has 3 kids with me being the eldest. My sister is by far his clear favorite, while my brother, the baby, is my stepmom’s favorite.
I didn’t pay attention to how it affected me, except today I’m close to my mom, but not my dad.
With my kids, both of them think the other is the favorite, and recently, they both realized they envied something the other had and that they’re both pretty balanced when the tally’s run up.

As far as I know, neither of my parents had favourites. My mother babied my younger brother because… well, because he is the youngest, but she would never favour him over her other two children. I haven’t met too many families in which it was obvious one child was the favourite.

I honestly truly don’t think my parents had/have favorites. If they do, they’ve hidden it well and I think that’s the right thing to do; you can’t help feelings of favoritism, but you shouldn’t show it. My parents have never indicated it to me. I mean, yeah, maybe academically speaking, I’ve done better and gone further than my siblings—but stuff like that hasn’t given them reason to consider me “the favorite” and I’m glad for that.

It bugs me to hear about parents who have favorites, like Ross and Monica’s parents on Friends. It’s funny on the show but in real life it would be horrible…

I think it is inevitable but as @DominicX says, they should do their best not to show it!

In my family my one brother was when we were young but as we grew older I think I became the favorite because I was always helping my parents in one way or another.

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!

My middle sister (I am the youngest of three) was very obviously my mother’s favorite. My oldest sister and I were jealous of that when we were young, and very relieved that it wasn’t us when we grew up. My Dad was very fair while we were children, but after growing up I became his favorite, probably because I was the one who made the effort to spend the most time with him, and we had such similar interests.

I am not the favorite, for my father it is and will ever by my sister. For my mother it was my oldest brother. The four of us in between were mostly lost in the shuffle.

I can honestly say I do not have a favorite child, or if I do it changes constantly. I do have a favorite among my step-children but I think that is ok because they are all grown up and my favorite is the one who was never anyone else’s favorite plus I am very discreet about my feelings.

@SuperMouse : You’ll always be my favorite of your family!

I’m an only child, but strangely, I wasn’t either of their favorite.

Good question! Whenever I ask them, they always say that there are no favorites. However, I have to admit I am my mom’s favorite. It’s fun at times but I get it when my brother or sisters get jealous!

My family dynamics are pretty convoluted. I know my sister feels I am the favorite, and it hurts her. I feel bad about that. But a lot of it is because I was sick and got a lot of parental help and support through that. Another bit of it is because she had a rebellious phase as a teenager in which she didn’t get along with our parents. I did not have this phase. She looks at my relationship with my parents and sees unequal treatment compared to what she received at my age. But the nature of my relationship with my parents is just so different. She didn’t like spending time at home. Being sick I’ve spent a lot of time at home, and I don’t dislike it. I share everything with my parents, she wasn’t quite so close with them. It’s just different. I feel bad that it makes her feel bad, but I also don’t like the somewhat condescending feeling I get from her; I think she thinks badly of me for still being dependent on my parents at my age. I know that is partially my fault but I’d also challenge her to try getting her independence while being as sick as I was. It isn’t easy.

I think I was my dad’s favorite, possible still am. Even my sisters and brothers have mentioned this. I know my dad loves all of us equally and he wouldn’t treat anyone better, but I have a lot more in common with my dad than the rest of my siblings do.