The Favorite Child

I am from a very large, very close family. I'm one of seven kids. And all our lives we've argued over which one of us is "The Favorite", though deep down inside, I know that all of my siblings know I am the favorite! Well to prove it, on Thanksgiving as we were leaving, my mom called me aside and handed me a gift bag. She said "now don't tell your brothers I gave you this" I opened it and inside was a Christmas Ornament. It said Mom's Favorite, and then had the name of one of my brothers on it! I said, this says Danny! She says oh no, I gave you the wrong one. She took it back and handed me another bag where the ornament inside had my name on it. She said I didn't want anyone to know I gave one to everybody. (She still thinks I am the only one who knows everyone of us got one! So if any of my brothers are reading this DON'T TELL MOM!)

Now, in our family, we may all Love ourselves a little too much, and be conceded at times (not to mention Humble) but I don't think there's a single one of us who would truly think my mom would actually tell us we had always been her favorite. We are a bunch of clowns and when we are together we laugh a lot. And my poor mom really wants to be funny, and she tries to be. But when she's not "trying" to be funny she'll say or do something that just cracks us all up and then when we laugh, she'll say What?! We all go to each others houses, so you would think she would realize we might see the ornament hanging on our siblings tree. But she really believes she has pulled one over on us all. (Well, not me, because she knows I know, since she gave me the wrong ornament, but she didn't want me to.)

And as I was thinking about how funny all of this is, I remembered an acquaintance of mine, way back before I even had any kids, this person did, and we were talking about her kids. And in the conversation of her telling me about her kids, she matter of factly told me which of her kids was her favorite. I'm sure my mouth flew open wide. My heart immediately broke for her other children. If she said this to me, I'm sure she said it to others as well, and we all know how perceptive children are. How terrible to live with the knowledge of never being able to measure up. Or the guilt you would feel knowing you were favored above your brothers & sisters. Either way it's a raw deal!

I guess my point in all this is it's our responsibility as parents to make all of our kids feel special. Like they are the only one like them in the whole world. (Yes, even with Twins! And that's a real challenge.) And no one else could take their place. And unless you have an only child, please never say you have a favorite child! I told my mom she has seven kids, she can have a favorite one for each day of the week. (except we all know it's really me that's her favorite everyday!) ;)

I guess we know we're doing a good job parenting, if like my mom, ALL our kids believe they are the favorite!

What do you do to make your kids feel special?