Favouritism

Yesterday morning, while Dar was driving me to work, there was a brief discussion on Class 95 on this topic. I think FD was mentioning that while parents may have favourites, that doesn't mean they love that child more than the others and they will try not to show it. Glenn was commenting that the child must have been able to sense it. True, I thought. However, now that I've grown up, on hindsight, I thought even the child has sensed something, the perception could have been wrong.

I was sharing with Dar how when I was young, I always thought my mom favoured my older brother more and always used this to "attack" her in our quarrels during my angsty teenage years. Of course, she was awfully hurt by this accusal and retorted that she gave up more for me than for my bro.

I'm sure that my bro would think that my father favours me more. But from a 3rd person's perspective, I may disagree. Now that I've grown, I realised that it's not that parents favour one child over the other, but that the expressions of love towards different children are different, given their different personality and needs.

My mom loves me in ways different from the way she loves my bro. Likewise for my father. However, as children, when we saw the difference, we often interpreted it biased-ness and if we were not careful, we would grow up with feelings of unfairness and resentment. That was how I felt at times as a teenager but my family's loving and giving environment resolved these feelings.

I was glad the topic came up, for I began to be more aware of our parents' love for us, manifested in different ways. For whichever way they choose to display their love and affirmation, I thank God for my family.