On Monday 24th January 2022 I went to visit a friend, on getting to her house she was looking sad and I asked her what was the problem she told me she just heard a news of how a brother poisoned his brother. I was shocked and asked her what had happened and she shared the story with me. I felt it's necessary I shared this short story with us because I feel it would be of help to us as parents to know that favoritism by parents can have an ill-effect among their children.
My friend said that this particular family had five children Three male children and Two female children. And according to her the parents love the second male children more and he was also the youngest child in the family. She narrated how right from when they were just kids that the parents would treat him differently from how they treated the other children, I guess that is where the jealousy and envy started from . So fast forward to the present day, the Father decided that he wanted to share his properties while he was still alive, so he called for a family meeting and told his children about what he wanted to do they all agreed to it, atleast this would help foster peace and unity in the family in the eventuality of their Father's death after all they would not have to fight over properties. So everyone arrived at their family home and they all talked, laughed and recounted childhood memories.
They had lunch then after that it was time for the Father to speak, he thanked everyone for coming around and that he enjoyed the time spent with his family, he said why he called them was because he wanted to share his properties while he was alive, they all clapped and nodded their heads. Everyone was happy about what their Father wanted to do because they all felt it was the right thing to do. The father brought out a file and said the file contained documents to each of his properties, he would read out all his properties and allocate them to each of the children. He read out the properties and after each of the children took turn to speak and they all spoke of how they were not happy with how their father shared the properties, he had favoured the last child by giving him 5 properties and give the other four siblings 2 properties each. They all felt cheated and were all angry they spoke to their Dad had expressed their anger.
The first child a son started shouting and hitting the table saying that the father has always been partial since they were kids, that he only loved the last child and that his why he always favored him when it comes to sharing of things, he reminded his father of how he use to threat the other children as strangers and that it was not fair . The mother tried to calm him down but he yelled at the mother and told her she was not different from the father. They all left angry and told the dad they won't accept how he shared the property.
The last child felt bad and wanted to make peace with his siblings because he was tired of how they always showed him hate because of how the parents treated him. He called his brother to meet him up for a drink and they would discuss about what, the elder brother agreed but he had other intentions. They got the bar and ordered some bottles of drinks , then the youngest child said he wanted to use the rest room, he left the table with his glass filled, after all he was with his brother. The elder brother brought out a pill and drop it in his younger brother's glass, the brother came back drank his drink without suspecting anything. Later that night he started vomiting and before he could be rushed to the hospital he died. The police were called and when they came the asked the Wife some questions, she told them the husband had mentioned to her he wanted to go have a drink with his brother. The next morning the brother was brought in for questioning and he confessed to the crime. They parents asked why he killed his brother? he told how he was always jealous and full of envy when he saw how they treated him with so much love and care but neglected the other children.
The parents wept and then they realized that they had sowed a seed of hatred among the other children towards their brother, They asked for forgiveness and wished they could turn back the hands of the clock.
We as parents are guilty of favoritism among our children, we have that favorite child we seem to care more about than the others, we might not know that these children our watching us and they know what we are doing. I know it is difficult as humans not to have a particular person you love the most, but as parents despite having a favorite child we should try as much as possible to hide it from the other children. This breeds envy, jealous and hatred. In all we do there should be a balance. Some children would even ask their parents who is their favorite child and the parents would answer, in should a case let the child know that you love children equally, because some children if they know that they are the favorite child they might want to rub it off the other children and it might not sit well with the others. Let's not sow a seed of hatred among our children, having a big happy family is such a blessing.