“Parents tend to favour a child that is most like them, reminds them of themselves, or represents what they view as a success of parenting,” she says. “Younger children are most likely to have been raised by a parent who, over time and experience, is more confident and skilled in their child-raising.”
Parents with two children who admit to having a favourite overwhelmingly (62%) prefer the youngest. Only 30% say they prefer the eldest. This pattern is similar to parents with three or more children who favour one above the others.
Overall, 38 percent of Americans who are the youngest in their family report they were the favorite, compared to 27 percent of those who were oldest. Middle children are the least likely to say they were a favorite child; only 20 percent believe they were.
A recent study has found that it's not the youngest child that's liked the most. It's actually the eldest! While eldest children around the world have had to be the example for their younger siblings and parents being extra strict on them, it looks like there was a good reason.
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.
According to a survey conducted by British parenting website Bounty, two girls are considered the best combination for parents to have a happy and harmonious family life. In their study, they surveyed 2,116 parents who had children aged 16 and under.
Statistically speaking, daughters win the day, but sons win dad by a nose. These findings are somewhat surprising, given the prevailing theory that preference for sons or daughters is based less on the sex of the parents than on their socioeconomic status.
Child number two or three doesn't make a parent happier. And, for mothers, he found, more children appear to make them less happy—although they are happier than childless women. For dads, additional children had no effect on their well-being in his study.
Want to be a happier parent? Grow your family to at least four children! According to a study out of Australia's Edith Cowan University, parents with the most life satisfaction (which means those who are the happiest) are those that have four or more children. Dr.
For parents, that tended to be the youngest—56 percent of those parents with a favorite said they preferred the baby of the family. Almost 40 percent of the grandparents with a favorite, meanwhile, preferred the oldest.
Children in the Netherlands are considered the happiest in the world, suggested the latest UNICEF report. The United Nation's body prepared the report after analysing data across 41 high-income countries.
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.
Firstborn strengths
Since they have their parents to themselves before siblings arrive, the firstborn is accustomed to being the center of attention.
The Best And Hardest Ages
Forty percent of survey participants felt that five was the most fun age. This was thought to be down to improved communication skills and the development of a good sense of humour. The survey also found that parents had the least fun with the 10 to 12 year old children.
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 people may claim that they take after their mothers in appearance, temperament or character, genetically speaking, they are more like their fathers.
Stress. A TODAYMoms.com survey of more that 7,000 mothers found that the least stressful number of kids is four, while the most stressful number is three. Scary Mommy blogger Jill Smokler told Today that she wholeheartedly agrees. “Going from one to two was an easy, breezy transition,” she said.
Another study confirms that parents with four or more children are the least stressed, especially when compared to parents with three kids. Those fears with the first child get less and less as you go along. Turns out, four is the magic number for less stress and more happiness.
An actual study revealed one to two children is the ideal number for “happiness”, but with two you don't have to deal with the aforementioned only child issues.
Inside: According to one survey, three kids is the most stressful number to have. Having four kids is supposed to be less stressful. Here's the real reason why. According to some random online survey, the most stressful number of kids to have is three.
In fact, mothers who have three children are the most stressed out - even more so than those who have four, according to a. The study found that while transitioning from two to three children is overwhelming for parents because it means they are outnumbered, mothers tend to 'let go' once they reach four children.
A gap of 3 years or more greatly reduces the chances of sibling rivalry. By this time the older child is secure in him or herself and quite independent. In addition, the mother's body is fully recovered from the challenges of pregnancy and birth of the first child.
The preference for boys, the authors find, seems to be largely driven by fathers. At least since 1941, men have told pollsters by more than a two-to-one margin that they would rather have a boy. Women have only a slight preference for daughters.
"Before the birth, a father would assume he'd connect with his son psychologically more so than with his daughter, and that they'd have more shared interests such as playing football. There is also research showing marriages with sons are less likely to break down than marriages with only daughters."
Predivorce family dynamics: In most intact families, sons and daughters are closer to their mothers than to their fathers. This does not mean the children and their fathers love one another less.