Every family goes through this, and we can't say this situation is rare at all. A family of elder and younger siblings go through conflicts and one of them is due to parental favoritism. This particular article, "Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence" tells about how parents should avoid favoritism cause the results could have long term effects on the children.For example, the elder child says, "it's only fair that you give me a later bedtime than my younger brother because I'm older!" but now the younger brother objects. "You should give us the same bedtime because we are equally your children." Now the parents could either listen to the younger brother and give them both equal hours and listen to the elder since as an adult he has a right. But that's not how the children would see it, if they were to listen to the younger one, the elder might cause a tantrum and likewise. You hear this word, "It's not fair!" because that's how the child is feeling. It's hard for parents to listen to their children's needs as well as make it look like they are not favoring any child. However, in the case of parental favoritism, there are several reasons why parents would favor one child over the other:
1) The child is obedient and has never caused any trouble.
2) Having common values and being able to relate better to one child then the other.
3) High performance child, star child and the parents give him/her more attention since he/she gives a lot back.
4) 'Gender', for example. "He's our only son".
There are other reasons why parental favoritism happens but as parents they should know how to avoid these situations since it's only cause more conflict within the family with the child who isn't treated in the same way.
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