Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
Mom’s Favorite Daughter Gets The House And Business, Her Sister Gets A Reason To Walk Away For Good
Parents shouldn’t have favorites but unfortunately, many do. Sometimes, it comes across in subtle ways. Other times, it’s glaringly obvious that siblings are not being treated equally and fairly. For example, if a mother leaves her entire inheritance to one daughter, while the other gets nothing.
A woman says she was treated as second-best throughout her entire childhood. Her sister always got first prize, and even ended up ‘stealing’ her boyfriend and marrying him. The final straw was when their mom left the family home and business to the ‘golden child.’ The woman immediately cut off her relatives and didn’t look back. Ten years later, her sister came knocking.
RELATED:
She’s always felt like the ‘black sheep,’ and the final straw was learning about her mother’s will
Her sister will inherit everything, while she gets nothing… So she’s decided to disinherit her family
Parental differential treatment occurs in up to 65% of families, and has long-lasting consequences
Any parent who says they don’t have a favorite child might be lying. In fact, parental differential treatment occurs in up to 65% of families. That’s according to research published by the American Psychological Association (APA). The APA’s 2025 study involved more than 19,000 participants and found that both mothers and fathers show a slight tendency to favor daughters over sons.
Regardless of whether parents are favoring their daughters or their son’s, the outcome can have long-lasting negative consequences. And not only to the “non-favorite” child…
Parental favoritism is about so much more than one child getting a bigger or better birthday gift. “At its core, it’s a sustained pattern of differential treatment across attention, affection, discipline, resources, or emotional availability,” explain the experts from ReachLink, a platform that connects people with therapists.
“One child gets the benefit of the doubt during conflict. Another gets more warmth, more time, more grace,” they add. “When that gap is consistent and rooted in a parent’s own emotional needs or projections, it becomes favoritism.”
While the less-favored child can grow up with an array of issues, the “golden kid” also stands to suffer. Because of the amount of disproportionate praise, protection, and resources the “golden child” receives, it can cause havoc with their own self-worth. As the experts explain, this favored child is quietly expected to validate the parent’s self-image.
“Over time, they often develop performance anxiety, people-pleasing tendencies, and a fragile sense of self that depends entirely on outside approval,” they say.
Meanwhile, Dr. Alexander Jensen, an associate professor at Brigham Young University says that siblings who receive less favored treatment tend to have poorer mental health and more strained family relationships, according to Jensen.
“If you grew up as the child who received less, the wound often goes deeper than feeling shortchanged. It becomes a belief: not that you got less, but that you deserved less. That something about you, at your core, was less lovable,” adds the Reachlink team.
They note that unfavored children often carry a lifelong habit of measuring themselves against others, in careers, friendships, and even their own parenting.
In the meantime, the “golden child” is carrying their own trauma…
“Perhaps the cruelest part of the favored child’s experience is that they are rarely given permission to name it as painful. The response they anticipate, and often receive, is some version of: ‘At least you were the favorite.’ That silencing is its own wound,” say the experts. “It prevents them from processing the real costs of their position, including the guilt, the identity fragility, the relational losses, and the exhausting performance of gratitude for something that was never as simple as it looked from the outside.”
Many felt the woman did exactly what was needed, and told her not to look back
Exhausted by family or in-law drama like this one? Visit our Family Dynamics Hub for expert-backed guides on toxic relatives, parenting styles, and personal boundaries.
Poll Question
Total votes ·
Thanks! Check out the results:
Total votes ·
Newsletter
Subscribe to Access
Exclusive Polls
By entering your email and clicking Subscribe, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Privacy Policy.
Thank you! You've successfully subscribed to newsletters!
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
Is this story about my life? XD Other than the bits about babies and boyfriends, it's terrifyingly similar. My sister got a brand-new Honda Prelude when she turned 16; I had to buy my own used car when I was 16 (an '86 Mazda 323.) I've recently found out that my mother is planning on leaving me "an allowance" in the family trust (controlled by my sister, apparently) and that's it. I don't know how much this "allowance" even is. My mother owns FIVE houses in Southern California (and collects rents on three) and she owns a thriving small business. My sister and I have worked at that small business all our lives and we have both lived at home all our lives. I never expected nor demanded any inheritance - I'm adopted and it has always been made clear to me that I should be grateful just for being adopted - but it still hurt to know that I'm STILL seen as so much lesser than my sister. I'd have gone NC decades ago, but back then my dad was still alive, and now, I can't afford to move out.
Tabitha 2 hours ago (edited)
I have a funny feeling sister’s life has fallen apart, she may be divorced, may have lost the business, had to sell the house and the building with the business and apartment, and is now asking for charity from OP “because family”. She doesn’t want to repair past breaks with OP. She wants something, once commenter said she probably wants OP’s kidney. I wouldn’t doubt that either. If OP is happy with her life, a life that is 100% without her family, then she shoukd preserve it as it is, and not introduce anything g or anyone who could topple it. Sister would probably try to seduce OP’s husband, just to boot her out and replace her in her life. She could then poison OP’s child’s mind against her. Hell, she ruined OP’s life once, what says she wouldn’t do it again? Her reply to OP’s “no thanks” was vitriolic. That’s not the rep,y of someone who truly wants to mend a broken relationship, that’s the reply of a spoiled brat who is still spoiled and bratty, and wants to take OP’s life because she’s f*cked up her own life—-after having everything given to her and stealing—-and marrying—-OP’s boyfriend. If he’s the one who has blown up her life and/or lost all their assets, then OP dodged a bullet. But I suspect it was the spoiled sister who blew up her own life, and is merely looking at OP as a life raft to cling to, and probably steal from to get herself upright again. No, I wouldn’t doubt not ever allow her back into my life again. If she ignored my NO and knocked on my door anyway, I would have her arrested for trespassing (and I guarantee she will NOT like the jails in South Africa), and make sure there’s a restraining order (or whatever the South African equivalent is) taken out on her. OP also needs to make sure her child(ren) gets told all about aunt and grandma and their cruelty toward Mom, so they don’t one day decide to bring the family back together. Granted, if any of sister’s kids turn out to be decent human beings (miracles can happen, you know), maybe they can try to reach out, but I wouldn’t risk my kid(s) being roped into that drama at any age by not knowing which cousin to talk to, as it could be a trap leading right to toxic sister.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 6 hours ago
Is this story about my life? XD Other than the bits about babies and boyfriends, it's terrifyingly similar. My sister got a brand-new Honda Prelude when she turned 16; I had to buy my own used car when I was 16 (an '86 Mazda 323.) I've recently found out that my mother is planning on leaving me "an allowance" in the family trust (controlled by my sister, apparently) and that's it. I don't know how much this "allowance" even is. My mother owns FIVE houses in Southern California (and collects rents on three) and she owns a thriving small business. My sister and I have worked at that small business all our lives and we have both lived at home all our lives. I never expected nor demanded any inheritance - I'm adopted and it has always been made clear to me that I should be grateful just for being adopted - but it still hurt to know that I'm STILL seen as so much lesser than my sister. I'd have gone NC decades ago, but back then my dad was still alive, and now, I can't afford to move out.
Tabitha 2 hours ago (edited)
I have a funny feeling sister’s life has fallen apart, she may be divorced, may have lost the business, had to sell the house and the building with the business and apartment, and is now asking for charity from OP “because family”. She doesn’t want to repair past breaks with OP. She wants something, once commenter said she probably wants OP’s kidney. I wouldn’t doubt that either. If OP is happy with her life, a life that is 100% without her family, then she shoukd preserve it as it is, and not introduce anything g or anyone who could topple it. Sister would probably try to seduce OP’s husband, just to boot her out and replace her in her life. She could then poison OP’s child’s mind against her. Hell, she ruined OP’s life once, what says she wouldn’t do it again? Her reply to OP’s “no thanks” was vitriolic. That’s not the rep,y of someone who truly wants to mend a broken relationship, that’s the reply of a spoiled brat who is still spoiled and bratty, and wants to take OP’s life because she’s f*cked up her own life—-after having everything given to her and stealing—-and marrying—-OP’s boyfriend. If he’s the one who has blown up her life and/or lost all their assets, then OP dodged a bullet. But I suspect it was the spoiled sister who blew up her own life, and is merely looking at OP as a life raft to cling to, and probably steal from to get herself upright again. No, I wouldn’t doubt not ever allow her back into my life again. If she ignored my NO and knocked on my door anyway, I would have her arrested for trespassing (and I guarantee she will NOT like the jails in South Africa), and make sure there’s a restraining order (or whatever the South African equivalent is) taken out on her. OP also needs to make sure her child(ren) gets told all about aunt and grandma and their cruelty toward Mom, so they don’t one day decide to bring the family back together. Granted, if any of sister’s kids turn out to be decent human beings (miracles can happen, you know), maybe they can try to reach out, but I wouldn’t risk my kid(s) being roped into that drama at any age by not knowing which cousin to talk to, as it could be a trap leading right to toxic sister.
Related on Bored Panda
42
4