"Dad said he loves me more than you."

How is it possible for a parent to favor one child over the other? If the Holy Trinity, Jehovah, Buddha, natural order of the universe, or whatever your method of conception may be, blessed you with more than one child, shouldn't they be loved equally? Is it right for parents to heap praise on one child and scorn the others? Can this not promote sibling rivalry and leave behind emotional scarring that can last a lifetime?

On a cold December day, a young child tried to hang himself. His father had confided in his brother that he loved him more than he did the other one. The one in whom he chose to confide was appalled at his father's expression and shared that information with his brother and mother. He wanted to know how his father could say such a thing about his brother. Was that supposed to make him happy? The child was struggling for answers. Wasn't his father supposed to love both his children the same, he wondered?

Such words cannot be taken back, nor can the pain they cause be changed. Often, a parent will have to overly compensate for the damage one parent may inflict on a child. And that overcompensation is unnatural.

On the other hand, the favored may feel anguished over a parent's reasoning concerning the other child. One may even blame himself for not being liked as much as the other child by his father, when neither child is at fault. Both, therefore, may suffer emotionally and not wish to see their father anymore.

More often than not, these attitudes can bring about bitter emotions between siblings, causing them to hold deep grudges against each other because of a parent's misguided emotions. Children should never to be subjected to this type of unbalanced parental appreciation, if they are to be healthy children.

This choice-game has been around for many years, but it harms healthy childhood development. Love is not supposed to hurt, and when a parent chooses one child over another, whether the parents vocalizes it or demonstrates it through behavior, both children are injured.