Do you think that favoritism of parents lead to jealousy with kids?

Question

If a parent has 2 kids & shows favoritism towards the younger child, do you think that it can lead to the older child being jealous?

Answer 1

yes yes and did I say yes? I think that parents have to realize that they have 2 children and that each child will have something that makes them special. Focusing on one will most certainly hurt the other and it will have long term affects.

Answer 2

I think what you are seeing is not favoritism,but almost trying to keep the child happy so the younger child does not have an out burst.
It really depends on the age. If the younger child is 2,and the older child is maybe six, you are probably going to see most of the attention given to the younger child. Why? Well, it depends on the kids,and it depends on the parent.
If you have two really great kids,and they both get along,but the parent neglects one child,there is a problem with the parenting skills. Parents should not have more than one child if they cannot even handle there first child, that is just ignorance.
If you have a terrible younger child,and an acceptable older child,(Or vice-versa) you will see not favoritism,but almost a desire to help the 'problem' child a chance to act like the good child. Its almost like a personal positive re-enforcement.
Hope this helped!
~Mac

Answer 3

I don't think, I know that favoritism of parents leads to jealousy of kids. It becomes very obvious and well known. And yes the older child i'm sure is already jealous and just hasn't said anything because the parents haven't spent any time with them.

Answer 4

Definatly and parents have to be careful of showing overt favortism. It is very difficult becouse although you love your children equally you are bound to have more in common with one or get along better with one over the other. Usually it balances out in a family becouse one child maybe Moms (or dads etc) but the other child will be someone else's favorite

Answer 5

yes.
i have a brother that is 3 years older than me and my mom favors him. she says she doesnt but i and anyone else can tell that its true.
but my parents are still together, after 22 years, and my dad favors me.
so im not jealous...but kids that dont have another parent to comfort them will be jealous.!

Answer 6

Absolutely favoritism could leads to jealousy!

Answer 7

Yep it sure can...the older child will feel like yous maybe dont love him or her as much as you might love the younger one...yous need to be equal with both, even though one may be smaller they are both your babies and you wouldnt want them to grow up hateing eachother now would you?...

Answer 8

I have three kids. While they were growing up, no matter how hard we tried to be fair, we were accused of favoritism on a regular basis. Had we actually played favorites it would have been even worse.

Answer 9

i definitely think so and that is why i can honestly say that i dont favor either of my children. i think my oldest, my 3 yr old still gets jealous at times though of my 1 yr old because she used to have me all to herself. i love them both the same and hope that i never show any favoritism towards either of them.

Answer 10

My mother had 3 and always favered the Middle one. Me and my younger sister have know this for Years. She says the middle sister looks like her and shes always been proud of her and everything she has done.
At times I guess we felt jealous.. WE also wanted our Mother to Love us and be proud of us.
No matter what..I don't think you should play favoretes