DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE?

Shona Sibary, 54, believes that all parents have a child they prefer

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a mother in possession of more than one child must not have a favourite. Or, at the very least, never, ever, admit it out loud to anybody, even to your husband after a few glasses of wine.

The thing is, every mother has one. It might not always be the same one at any given moment, but if, like me, you have grown and birthed more than one human being – four, in my case – there will be times when you prefer one of them.

The idea of having a favourite child is probably one of the biggest parenting taboos but it doesn't make it any less true. In the same way that I don't believe annoying married couples who profess to 'never having had a cross word', any mother who claims to feel the same boundless love for all her children is, quite simply, a smug liar, liar, pants on fire.

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There's even international research to back this up. A recent study* has found that parents favour older children, daughters and – shock horror – 'conscientious or agreeable children'. Well, no surprises there!

I can understand why some parents might favour their oldest child, their 'precious first born', the child that first made them a parent and brought with them all those other magical 'firsts' like the first smile, first tooth and first steps. So it certainly makes sense that so many adored older children go through life unable to do anything wrong in their parents' eyes, unlike their hapless younger siblings.