Do your parents or in laws have a favourite/golden child?

[Classicsituation]

If do what sort of things do they do that shows they are playing favourites.

Aibu to think that a lot of parents have a favourite without even realising or acknowledging it?

ILs definitely SiL, they treat her so much better than they do DH. I'm an only child thankfully.

My DM was the least favourite and her brother was the golden child. She was always made out to be the slow one (she got a degree in maths in 2 years and then worked as a "computer" for IBM like in Hidden Figures, she's not in the slightest bit slow).
She didn't do this quite as much with my DB and me (though he was always "better" at school and his poor university results were because he had a "hard time" and she just expected me to get on with it (DB was seriously mentally ill while at uni so it wasn't completely untrue but he also has a total tendency to coast).
But my DD is completely obviously her favourite and she can't stand DS and makes it plain. DS has SEN which isn't an excuse but she makes no allowance and expects us to parent them the same. DD is not a perfect child at all but can do no wrong in my DM eyes.

I think probably a lot of the time when people say others were the favourite, then their siblings would disagree.

My brother went to train as a nurse when he was 19. He couldn't get home for Xmas so my mum sent him loads of tings. I went shopping with her for quite a few things.

She actually forgot to get anything for me.
Yes my brother was away from home and yes I was in my teens so it's not like a believed in Santa but really who forgets to buy their child Christmas presents?

There used to be a cereal called golden balls, I spent about 10 minutes cry laughing in Asda when I saw it 🤣 I imagined my mother had been writing to all the manufacturers of everything trying to get things named after her precious child.

Dark humour has always got me through things, sometimes its either laugh or cry.

Often the golden child will have an inkling that they are preferred, but there will be a ‘reason’, eg I live nearby; I help them; we have interests in common; I have kids/need more help. What they don’t necessarily see is that these reasons are all part of a long standing dynamic which sees one child being brought closer (emotionally or physically) with the others being distanced or distancing themselves because of the favouritism.