Be honest, do you treat you DC's the same?

[EllaAndJosh]

I have DD aged 6 & DS 4 I treat them both the same and can honestly say I love them both the same, however, there are times when DD annoys me and I favour DS and vice versa.

Anyway, when I was a kid my sister (eldest) was without a doubt the favourite, for eg she went to brownies, guides, horseriding, went to clubs etc - I on the other hand did erm -nothing. When I asked my parents about this they said that because I was the 3rd child they kinda lost interest wtf!!!

Also they had a baby boy after my sister but sadly he only lived a month. I know they desperatley wanted a boy and only wanted 2 kids but hey ho guess what- I arrived child number 3.

Anyway I know it is awful for anyone to lose a child but since I have been married with kids of my own I can really see how obvious it was that my parents had favoured my sister over me. Maybe she resented me in some strange way for what happened to my brother. My parents had favourites and I was not one of them (not that there should be).

I do resent the way my parents have treated us so differently, i.e, sister was favourite and I was wondering if any of you secretly like one child more than the other and if so what are your reasons for this?

I think that is so sad ! I would never favor one child over another, but I think I do treat them differently sometimes because their personalities are so different at the moment. Eg, dd1 (5) is very confident now, talkative, strong-minded, funny and also quite demanding and difficult at times, so I do tend to be firmer with her I think, and she responds well to firmer boundaries. Dd2 is 3.5 and going through a very sensitive phase, cries easily, picks her lips and has started twitching when nervous (see my thread in nurseries!!) and also still wets herself sometimes. Overall, more babyish than her sis was at same age so I guess I feel more protective of her, and more worried about her at the mo, so probably do treat her with more patience when she is playing up. Also, she is middle child, as I have a ds aged 6 mo, and I was also a middle child. Its a hard position because in some ways the oldest is percieved as the best, and the youngest is the cute one ect....just hope I am not letting dd2 get away with murder because I relate to her more !

I do treat mine differently (partly because DS is so easy ), but it would never be to the extent like your childhood It is more that I snap more quickly at DD

I really am working on it though because I feel terrible for it.