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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To have a favourite child?

137 replies

neverputtingthelaundryaway · 16/11/2025 18:32

Obviously it is totally, horribly unreasonable but I do. I don’t like myself for it; it I could stop and just honestly and sincerely love them both the same I would. And if I’d known my feelings would be so different I’d have severely questioned the wisdom of having another but … this is where I am. Can’t afford counselling.

OP posts:
martinagiraffe · 16/11/2025 23:17

I have 2. DD is much more challenging than DS but hand on heart I love them equally.

But I definitely should love my DS more!

HeyThereDelila · 16/11/2025 23:20

That’s so sad @CalendarKelly - you don’t deserve to have experienced that.

HeyThereDelila · 16/11/2025 23:25

If you can’t afford counselling I would try and save up for it, and call Relate asking about family therapy. Your local children’s centre may be able to help too. In the meantime, concentrate on being as loving, warm and demonstrative to your DS as you can be - daily hugs, tell him you love him every day, a cuddle at bedtime, rubbing his back, reading stories and laughing together at bedtime - it will all help.

2021x · 17/11/2025 01:25

Is it love or is it preference?

You are much more likely to prefer to spend time with someone who is more like you. My brother and my mum get on a lot better because they are very similar. Do I notice that he gets more support in conflicts... absolutely but we got the same in regards of education, spending etc..

Does it suck, sure, but can it change.. unlikely.

2021x · 17/11/2025 01:26

Rexinasaurus · 16/11/2025 19:23

The children have a favourite parent too 🤷‍♀️

I guess this is different because children don't have a choice or rationality in the same way that adults do.

ClareBlue · 17/11/2025 01:52

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neverputtingthelaundryaway · 17/11/2025 02:19

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You could try, why not go and ask AI to write some posts about preferring one child over another? Obviously I don't think they’re weird in style but I have to admit your post hasn’t really made me want to open up any more and it’s a shame as you inevitably do end up focusing on that one rather than the helpful and supportive ones that came before it.

OP posts:
XWKD · 17/11/2025 02:25

neverputtingthelaundryaway · 17/11/2025 02:19

You could try, why not go and ask AI to write some posts about preferring one child over another? Obviously I don't think they’re weird in style but I have to admit your post hasn’t really made me want to open up any more and it’s a shame as you inevitably do end up focusing on that one rather than the helpful and supportive ones that came before it.

There's a lot of AI paranoia here. It's bizarre.

arcticpandas · 17/11/2025 06:06

neverputtingthelaundryaway · 16/11/2025 21:01

One of the things that’s hardest about ds is that it’s really difficult to have these sorts of conversations. Before I had kids I imagined that we’d have these meaningful heart to hearts where he’d confide, haltingly and stumblingly, his deepest worries and fears and I’d sit quietly and lovingly encouraging him. As it is … the conversations are all over the place and ramble and make little sense!

🤣 Sorry OP but he's 5 years old! Meaningful conversations will be held but please be patient..

neverputtingthelaundryaway · 17/11/2025 07:03

I do know that … it was in response to another question about asking him about his sister.

OP posts:
financialcareerstuff · 17/11/2025 08:42

OP, I have to say, I was very worried by your first post but as you give more detail, I feel like this is more behavioural based and also based in a certain fantasy of how you want being a mother to feel …. Both those things can be worked on.

behaviourally, we all have different behaviours that trigger us. Sounds like you are not triggered by tantrums but you are by chaos and lack of emotional connection. Your fantasy about communication with him (quietly sitting, listening, while you help him speak) is a very unrealistic one, especially for a five year old boy. It sounds like you have some basic irritation that he’s almost obliviously bouncing round the place making noise (the opposite of your fantasy, which he seems to be spurning!) While you may have one or two moments like your fantasy with both your children through the decades, they tend to be few and far between.

I would suggest become aware of your fantasy and triggers and analyse them a bit, and let go of them as best you can (or take responsibility for them atleast). Eg for me, I was triggered by whining. While I found defiance no big problem. Why whining? Because I never allowed self pity in myself. It was a forbidden emotion in my own childhood.

for you, you mention self consciousness about what people think…. Maybe you are someone who never allows themselves to be noisy or boisterous or catch attention, who thinks everything needs to be restrained/ordered. Your son, who does all this effortlessly and unapologetically- without your permission or help, could actually feel threatening to your own coping mechanisms/ world view.

Anyway. My other suggestion would be to not let it get embedded in your mind as a permanent judgement. Ie don’t tell yourself “I have a favourite child”…. Otherwise that will become permanently true. Say to yourself “right now, at this age phase, I find DS’s behaviour more triggering/ harder to deal with, so I need to take extra breaths with him, and find ways to counteract that, so we can have positive connections’”.

good luck.

unleashthebook · 17/11/2025 09:04

I don’t think love is measurable in that sense.

I have two grown up children and they’re very different people. One of them is hilarious and fun loving but can be demanding at times, the other is totally relaxed and undemanding but more serious - I adore different aspects of their characters but would lay my life on the line for both of them.

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