A recent study has found that it's not the youngest child that's liked the most. It's actually the
Mom may like Mary better than Beth or Tommy for a whole bunch of reasons. This is actually normal. We may love our kids in an existential way equally; we would die to save all of them, and we are totally invested in them. But we may click better with one or the other," Pillemer says.
Sometimes your love for your firstborn child feels so all-consuming that it's hard to imagine having enough to give your second child. But love is boundless, and even if you get off to a slow start with your second, you'll soon find your heart is big enough to love all your children, no matter how many you have.
Mothers typically love, care, support and provide for their children more than fathers. This is the general trend observed in humans and other mammals.
The survey concluded that parents tend to favour their youngest child over the elder. More than half of the parents quizzed said they preferred their youngest child, while only 26 per cent said that their favourite child was their eldest.
Summary: A research group has studied whether parents' gender preferences and investment in offspring are affected by their status, wealth, education or childhood environment. Instead, parental preferences were best predicted by their sex.
Of those, four out of five (78%) insist a sibling was the favourite, not themselves. Half say their parents preferred the youngest sibling, just over a quarter (27%) the eldest and a fifth (22%) the middle child. This is similar to what parents with a preference disclosed.
Of course it has its ups and downs (ahem, the teenage years), but there's no denying that the mother-daughter bond is something special. And now, scientists agree. According to a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, the relationship between mothers and daughters is the strongest of all parent-child bonds.
Q: Do fathers bond as strongly with babies as do their mothers? A: Since fathers don't carry the baby for nine months, give birth or breast-feed, the process of bonding is often slower and different. But the feelings can be just as strong, experts say.
Researchers studying mother-and daughter relationships have found that brain chemistry may play a role in this connection. Mother and daughter brains have similar structures and patterns for empathy, and the part of the brain that regulates emotions is also alike in mothers and daughters.
The firstborn effect
Firstborns tend to possess psychological characteristics related to leadership, including responsibility, creativity, obedience and dominance. They are also more likely to have higher academic abilities and levels of intelligence than their younger siblings.
Regardless of the reason, some research shows many parents almost certainly do have favourites – whether they admit to it or not. In one study, up to 74% of mothers and 70% of fathers in the UK have been shown to exhibit preferential treatment towards one child.
And it turns out that for most people it happens when they're quite young, with 55 percent of people saying they first fell in love between the ages of 15 and 18! Twenty percent of us then fall in love between the ages of 19 and 21, so around the time you're at university or working your first real job.
Sometimes, parents target a child for abuse because the child is hyperactive, has a disability, or displays personality traits the parent doesn't like. More likely than not, though, Egeland says, there is no logical explanation.
“Parents may favor one child over another, for a lot of reasons. The child may have an easy temperament or might behave particularly well. They may look like you, or remind you of a favorite relative,” says Susan Newman, Ph.
But what child a parent prefers has more to do with their own priorities than what society considers a success. Parents feel closer to the child who shares the same values. While children might think the sibling with the fancy education who makes the big money takes the prize, that's not often the case.
Most people feel as though they look more like their biological mom or biological dad. They may even think they act more like one than the other. And while it is true that you get half of your genes from each parent, the genes from your father are more dominant, especially when it comes to your health.
A new study found that, really, fathers have little influence on how their kids turn out as parents. It's moms who hold the most sway! Researchers from the U.K. filmed 146 mothers and 146 fathers hanging out with their kids and playing games.
Mothers are, the research shows, twice as likely to be more critical of their daughters than their sons, while over half admitted that they feel a stronger tie to their son than their daughter.
Parenting styles vary from person to person, but a few main categories have been identified by researchers over the years. In the 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrind identified three main styles of parenting: authoritarian, authoritative and permissive.
According to research, children brought up with an authoritative parenting style have high self-esteem. They tend to be emotionally stronger and lead a happier life than those raised under authoritarian or permissive parents.
Although there is no standard definition of "best interests of the child," the term generally refers to the deliberation that courts undertake when deciding what type of services, actions, and orders will best serve a child as well as who is best suited to take care of a child.
Does that hold true for your family? The order you were born can have an impact on how successful you are in life, according to Sandra Black, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
First-born kids tend to be leaders, like CEOS and founders, and are more likely to achieve traditional success. Middle-born children often embody a mix of the traits of older and younger siblings, and they're very relationship-focused.
While the youngest sibling is usually the funniest kid, mom and dad favor the youngest for a reason that might surprise you. According to a new study conducted by Brigham Young University's School of Family Life, the youngest sibling of the family tends to be mom and dad's favorite child because of perception.