This troper's father and aunt had to suffer this from their mother, who pretty much abandoned them for her older sons from a previous marriage when he was seven and my aunt was TWO (seriously, she abandoned a TODDLER!). It didn't help that they were then stuck with pretty much the worst father ever. This troper is surprised both of them are still sane.

this troper has it in a weird way, im an only child (and spoiled rotten, but i know it) but due to bullying for years i have a tad bit of issues and when ever im with my parents for no pre set reason we fight, im locked in my room (by my own will). i have 2 cousins, the cousin (girl) is a year or so younger then me and is a favorite of her side of the family its funny, but she is equal in chores and privialges, they just like her,talk to her more then they do to me, but being an anime addict i can live without them, oh and my cousin and i are still good freinds(but idk if she knows, i have no reason to tell her and make her feel bad) on the other side i got a new cousin but since my aunt is moving with my grandparents and they need to upgrade they lived with us for about 6 months or more (is done at the end of this week)he will be their favorate but i have my parents and my games/anime (games/anime>parents by the way) so i am the unfavorate in one case and the other is in progress, my parents know it will and don't care(they say its "normal") i don't think it GOOD but i really don't mind it.

This tropers mom's bosses' sister adopted 2 children who are this. As compared to the children originally borne to this women, the 2 adopted children only have 5 toys for both of them, get more severely punished, and are generally less well-liked.

This troper's sister is almost certainly the parental favourite; she gets more positive attention all-round (although this troper does get ''praised'' quite a bit either for doing things that impress her parents or, somewhat bewilderingly, for not being a pain in the ass when they have guests around), and can get away with murder. Of course, it's somewhat justified that our parents would prefer the daughter who's easier to deal with, since I'm a head case and an InsufferableGenius, whereas she's perfectly, ''appallingly'' normal and rather simpering to boot.

'Somewhat bewilderingly?' Sounds like common sense to This Troper.

Simpering people are normal?

The fact that people might actually like the 'normal' person better when, in this case, 'normal' means 'not a head case and an insufferable genius.'

Why not just try to connect with them? My parents never understood debate or choir or any of that stuff. But when I just talked to them things were fine. You can still be a genius, just don't constantly berate them and lord it over everyone.

This troper knows a trio of siblings that had two sets of ''very'' dysfunctional parents/step-parents. And yes, each set had their own favorite. Unfortunately for the oldest of the three, she got the short end of both sticks. In spite of that, she's almost ''inhumanly'' well adjusted. In fact, all three of them are inhumanly well adjusted. ''Hmm...''

This troper's parents were both the unfavorite, which is weird, considering both were hard-working, intelligent, got good grades, and were basically everything their siblings were not, achievement-wise. But my mom's younger sister was constantly given preferential treatment despite her slack-off attitude and laziness, because she was "the baby." And my dad was a definite victim of the middle child syndrome- his older brother, who is a total dick, got the praise for being "manly" (he was a big sports star) while his younger sister dropped out of high school, smoked pot, and had no less than three abortions, and was rewarded with things like a color TV for her room (this was the 70s), thousands of dollars in college tuition that she repaied by dropping out, and thousands more in loans to help support her extravagant lifestyle when the best jobs she could get were as a maid or working for a cleaning service. Fortunately, at age 40, husband #2 (and live-in partner God-only-knows how many) she seems to have settled down. Due to the overwhelming favoritism on both sides (confirmed by independent sources such as church members, family friends, etc.) my parents were always very careful never to display any kind of preferential treatment to my older brother or myself and succeeded very well.

Non-familial example: In this troper's PE class, there are only six people. One of them, Brad, is TheUnFavorite, due to the fact that he goofs off more than anything and that usually costs his team.

This troper's parents don't really tend to have an unfavorite but he does tend to get yelled for stuff that if either of his sisters did would just cause mild annoyance. He knew this and his sisters knew this but if he ever tried to call his parents on it they had no idea what he was talking about.

This Troper has always known she was her mother's Un Favorite, but wasn't much bothered most of the time, as she was the favorite for her father, boths sets of grandparents, and any relatives that stopped by. (And because this trope doesn't have a JBM page, why is it spelled with a 'u'?)

Because the person who created this page is Scottish, and that's how we spell it. ParentalFavoritism lacks the "u" in deference to the u-hating American spelling, but this time around I defaulted to what I know as the "proper" spelling. Any further questions? ^_~

What an awesome pothole! British English for the win :D

Aversion. This troper has two older brothers; one of them has Asperger's Syndrome and needs much more attention and care than the other two does; many children who has siblings with Asperger's tends to become overlooked in favor of the other sibling because of this. So it would be quite easy for this troper or her oldest brother to become the unfavourite, but the trope has so far been successfully averted. Might have something to do with that their dad was his parents' (or at least his father's) unfavourite.

This troper's best friend is like this, and is developing HELLA issues because of it. Every time him and his sister have an argument, his parents rule that his sister wins automatically. It's incredible, and almost like they hate him. They force him to learn physics years beyond his class, and his siblings don't learn anthing advanced and pretty much shirk school. The only reason he has his MP4 is because his sister had her parents get one and they got the wrong one, so instead of throwing it out they gave it to him.

My sister thinks she is this. Key word ''thinks''. In reality she's given more grief because of the appalling way she treats everyone and because of all the stupid things she's pulled. But instead of actually taking responsibility, she just concludes she's the unfavourite. *eyeroll*

I tend toward being the unfavourite. I get in a ''lot'' of arguments with my parents, mainly because I am not as smart as they wanted me to be. My two sisters are given all the freedom they want as far as schoolwork and stuff goes, but I keep getting yelled at to do my homework, and frequently am not allowed to do anything else (I am also frequently asked a lot of questions about homework, and get ultimately less privacy). Case in point: one of my sisters asked to go to a concert ''during the week'' and they had no problems letting her go. I wanted to see the school play this week and was immediately told no. And about those arguments? When they argue with my parents they write it off as having their own opinions, but when I argue with them they get angry and once even decided that I must be depressed and took me to a therapist. Yes, they can have opinions and I can't. And when I finally complained about this my mother thought she could honestly say I was making this up. /{{Wangst}}.

Kick them in the nuts and shout "I REGRET NOTHING!"

I'm my mother's Unfavorite due to my uncanny resemblance to my father, whom she loathes and is divorced from. However, I'm my father's favorite, as well as the favorites of our grandparents, so I believe it all evens out.

After my grandfather left my grandmother for another woman, my mother became The Unfavorite. The new wife's children became the favorites. I could go on and on with examples of nasty behavior on their part, but I'll just mention one. When grandfather died, stepdaughter didn't tell my mother and me for three days. Yeah, Mom has issues.

This troper's family never approved of her father, and thus she was TheUnfavorite to everyone but her mother. Her closest cousin in age got dolls, toys attention and praise from everyone, even relatives more closely related to this troper, unless this troper did something smart. Later on this troper's feminism and support of education made her somewhat ostracized. No Cinderella ending for her yet, but it is only 24 credit hours away.

This troper was his dad's favourite, while his sister was his mother's. I got stuck with my mother when they divorced when I was 8. It didn't go well. Two years later, his dad had another son by another woman, who became the favourite and left this troper slightly nowhere. (I got over it, don't worry.) The other woman eventually became a complete nutbar (she married another man, who is currently serving a life sentence for murder), so the second son was deemed to need more support, and every aspect of his abject arseholeness (doing drugs, stealing cars, etcetera) is excused and justified and defended to the hilt. His sister did drugs and was an alcoholic for a while, too; this troper eventually decided to keep his head down until he could escape to the other side of the country for university. So, word to the wise for everyone; if you want to become the favourite, do drugs and generally act like a wanker. (My mother was herself The Unfavourite of her own generation - being a middle child always sucks.)

Update: the Favourite tendencies for that other son have disappeared since he ended up in prison and the dad adopted two other children (the children of this troper's cousin - JeremyKyle would have a nightmare trying to sort this family tree out).

My mother's younger brother is the favourite, who can do no wrong. The grandparents don't believe he's on drugs, don't tell him off for being insensitive, don't seem to care that he's almost 40 and still acting like a child...

In my aunt and uncle's family, J is the favorite and G is the unfavorite. J went to college on a tennis scholarship, and my aunt and uncle's house had a whole shelf devoted for tennis trophies. G... had a graduation ceremony without having an actual degree(?!). J lives close my aunt and uncle; G lives far far away, and when visiting my aunt can usually be found yelling critically at G (You DrivesLikeCrazy!).

Downright deconstructed with my Grandmother's family. She was her father's favorite, her younger brother was her mother's favorite, while the middle son was no one's favorite at all. While my grandmother turned out fine, the mother-favourited brother grew up into a selfish man-child who let his own infant daughter get half-beaten half to death through his own negligence, resulting in her becoming mentally retarded and wheelchair-bound. He's also had anywhere from three to four wives. The unfavourite?... Didn't live long after reaching adulthood.

My Mother's brother was the unfavorite of the family, and from what I've been told was often compared to my mom, and at one time was made to live in the garage - In an area where it snowed heavily in the winter. I never crossed my mind that there was a favorite between me and my brother, and to be honest me and my brother got along better with each other than with ether of our parents, but then I learned that both my parents use some version of my name as a password for multiple accounts, and it makes me wonder if I missed something...

That your parents suck at remembering passwords?

This troper's mum was the unfavourite. Her brother got away with doing things like hitting her hard enough to draw blood and stabbing her in the foot, because their mother was under the delusion that he was a good boy and if she ignored his behaviour, he would start being good. She wasn't even allowed to tell her father about this abuse. As it turns out, her brother got into trouble with the law and had a unibomber psychological profile. This troper was even his 'unfavourite' while her sister was his favourite. This man has been in prison and has delusions that the police are all jews who are out to get him, and that he's one of the people who will go to Heaven during the Tribulation. The troper's mother? She's a successful manager at a grocery store and will soon be promoted to hiring manager.

This troper has two step-cousins, a 13 year old boy and 17 year old girl, and it's blatantly obvious that the boy is the unfavorite from all the verbal abuse he suffers at the hands of his mother and my uncle. Though granted some of it may just be ToughLove, since the poor boy can be a bit annoying and needs some educating, I can't help but think they've screwed up the child for life. The girl also gets her share of the tough love, it's not nearly on the same level.

This troper can't help but feel like this compared to her younger brother, who has Asperger's and requires about triple the parental energy. Logically, she gets it. Emotionally...

This Troper is TheUnFavourite to her older brother. If he throws a huge tantrum at me, the entire thing will be blamed on me for provoking him, no matter how slight the "provocation," was. He'll just be comforted and soothed, not even told off for it. If he starts saying that he hates me and I'm horrible, that's ignored, whereas I've had to learn to keep my mouth shut because if I ever insult him at all, my parents immedietly jump in. Additionally, he's allowed to go out as often and come back as late as he wants, whereas this 18-year-old troper is always frowned on for going out at night because she's a girl and thus will be attacked, and if she goes out too often, she's either doing it to avoid housework or to meet "bad people," in the city, whatever that means. I don't even ''know'' anyone who could be viewed as a "bad person." I'm always being negatively compared to him because he does so much housework and I supposedly do barely any - but when we actually started keeping a tally of how many jobs were done, I was evidently doing more than they thought, because they kept wrongfully accusing me of adding to my score. Obviously, all of this doesn't exactly endear them to me, and my "unappreciative," attitude around them only makes me more of TheUnFavourite.

This troper was the result of an unwanted pregnancy. Mom never let me forget I was the reason she had to give up her hopes of a career (my dad was wealthy, my mom knew she'd have to marry him to get him to support her, and did I mention my parents are Catholic?). My brother came along two years later, he was intentional, but my mom always took the situation out on me.

This troper's younger brother was informed, in so many words, that he (the brother) was their father's favourite. This troper considered it kind of a relief, as he had always suspected as much.

For a sort of comedic change, this troper was in a high school play where there was a big in joke/RunningGag that my character (Susan) was the unfavourite. This came from improv games we would do in character where everytime the actor playing my father and I had a scene together he would treat me like crap, compare me unfavorably to my character's brother and almost always end with him saying "I hate you". This was then built upon when he and the mother were in a scene and the actress went "I really hate our daughter Susan". Then my character's ''fiance'' came in with "I really hate your daughter Susan". Then the BigBad came in and revealed that his character motivation was that he "hates your daughter Susan". Long story short, I was the total ButtMonkey of the show!

This troper and his sister have both seen this trope in action. While their parents don't act like this, the rest of the family does, on both sides. See, each family didn't like the other side. So this troper, resembling his father, is loved by his father's side and treated poorly by his mother's side. Meanwhile his sister, who looks almost just like their mother, is embraced by the mother's side but badmouthed by the father's side. Due to the lack of SiblingRivalry, the two usually end up defending the other in front of the respective sides of the family.

This Troper and his one-year-older sister may have both thought they were this while the other was the favorite. On the one hand my sister was the good-looking, sociable, responsible older child. On the other hand, I was the intelligent, mostly independent, ever curious "baby." It seems that we always saw each other getting praise for things we thought we should as well, or saw the perks of the age position of the other enviously. However, this Troper, upon reflection, thinks that either each was a favorite to one parent, or more likely it was all in our heads the whole time.

My husband was definitely an unfavorite. His sister was treated like a princess who could never do anything wrong. They gave her everything she wanted and never complained about her irresponsible behavior. My husband was treated like a burden throughout his adolescence. His parents responded to everything by screaming at him, refused to acknowledge his accomplishments, and constantly reminded him that he was an accident. He had to do whatever his sister wanted and got punished whenever she got uphappy. They started charging him rent when he was a freshman and kicked him out of the house during his senior year. He hasn't spoken to any of them in nine years. The last we heard of them, his parents had to file bankruptcy because of their daughter's out of control spending.

This troper's older brother is TheUnfavorite, due to the fact that I'm "intellectually gifted" or some crap. But since I'm also the DoggedNiceGuy, I try to pass on some of the parental love onto my brother, who, unfortunately, says DontYouDarePityMe. This sucks even more for the both of us since he gets very little support, while I get too much support (that is, overbearing parents who expect "only the best" from me).

This troper experienced this from his aunt (For the record, the aunt being his mom's younger sister). She did not like me at all; strongly preferring my older cousin (The son of my mom's older sister). The oldest cousin was treated like a saint; he was incapable of doing any wrong, and whatever he liked was perfectly safe for the youngest cousin to watch or play without any problems (Even though he's done some things far worse than what I've ever done). However, I'm the "bad child"; anything I say or do is terms for getting yelled at by her (Even if her son is acting up, I get punished for asking him to stop), she thinks I don't know anything because she sees me as being JustAKid (In example, there was one time something went wrong with my grandmother's PC; I had not done anything with it that day, although I was sitting in that chair because it was more comfortable than the tile floor and all the other chairs in the living room where taken up. Later in the day, after we went back home, my aunt made a call to my mom; the first words out of her mouth after answering where "What the hell did your son do to this computer?"), and anything that I did do that was bad was always blown out of proportion when she told everybody else. Thankfully, it's began to let up, although I still don't care much for her at all.

This troper's cousin is an un-favorite because of the homophobic ways the older generation in the family was raised. "K" is eighteen years old, and had to ''move out of the family home'' because the parents couldn't ''stand to look at her'' after she came out. She changed her last name and moved in with her girlfriend's parents, a lovely couple who doesn't really give a damn about their daighter's sexuality, and treats her like if she was their child too. This troper's family rarely speaks of her, and it's sort of a taboo to bring out the topic. However, I feel this is about to be retconned. K and this troper's cousin, A, who has always been favored in the family for his athletic and academic prowess, recently came out to a select few of his friends and cousins, myself included. I doubt the parents and grandparents are going to disown their beloved poster-child like they did to K, who was just an average girl, if incredibly smart. If this happens, they might admit K back into the family. But she's {{Badass}} by default, so when I asked her if she'd come back, she told me, in no uncertain terms that "Those old fuckers can go get raped up the ass by the devil's pitchforks if they want. I'm not going back to them." The unfavorite, and staying that way to prove a point. Goddamn, she's my favorite cousin for a reason!

This troper's older brother is a high school dropout. While he eventually got his G.E.D he's been 'trying' to earn an Associates for the last ten years. He throws away every dime he has and is currently unemployed because he didn't like his boss and quit. He routinely insults our mother and refuses to speak to our father, breaking both their hearts. He has a criminal record and the last time this troper saw him he told her she needed to lose weight (I'm 5'6' and 115 lbs) and to see a beautician. He's thirty-three years old and acts like he's sixteen. Despite all this my mom has made it abundantly clear that she considers his feelings more important than mine. He's her poor baby whose life has been so hard and he's been through so much (never mind that it was mostly self-inflicted). She never wastes an opportunity to tell me that I'm the 'lucky' one. Apparently, not getting yourself arrested is considered lucky nowadays. While I am Daddy's Girl it still kind of hurts that my mother feels free to dismiss me.

This troper's father frequently threatens to throw him out, but my sister only gets grounded for doing 50% more of the stuff he does.

This troper is her father's Unfavourite. She is her mothers Favourite, though.

This troper is the Unfavourie to her ''younger'' brother, probably because her brother is generally nicer/kinder to her parents- although his temper tantrums are nasty. This troper is calmer and refuses to be provoked. I'm my mother's unfavourite because my mother has a downright explosive temper, and this troper has no temper; arguments between us consist of her railing at me, pacing, throwing stuff, and screaming and me sitting calmly while making occasional snarky comments as I rebut everything she says in a calm, even tone. My mother's fits amuse me, so me giggling at her temper tantrums might have something to do with it. I'm my father's unfavourite because he's a football guy first and foremost. Although I am fairly athletic, I am a huge nerd and have always preferred sitting inside and reading to playing sports, whereas my brother is ridiculously athletic and generally more agreeable. My brother and my dad also share a similar goofy attitude; I am usually just annoyed by their immature jokes.

This troper became the Unfavorite the week before another child entered the house, when my aunt and cousin moved in. I live with my grandmother (who I call "Mom" since she raised me), and from January 2010 until May 2010, I was threatened pretty much everyday, to the point I was afraid to spend too much time at home. I would either go to our community pool until it closed, or stay at my friend's house until my curfew. And even that wasn't enough. The rare discussions I did have with "Mom" always ended with me walking away, fighting back tears, worried about where I would spend the night. You see, "Mom"'s threats were either A: "I swear to Christ I will punch you in the God-Damned face." (F-Bombs thrown in randomly) B: "I will throw you out on you damned ass" or C: "Don't mess with me, boy, I will make your life a living hell." While she never carried those threats out, that was enough to damage my relationship with my entire family, as they never spoke out against this, and would, in fact, defend her treatment of me. Now I just want nothing to do with them anymore.

Can't really say parents like either of their daughters but ThisTroper being the darker sister with relaxer free hair and plans to leave town and not become a doctor is frequently yelled at and occasionally beat me for minor offenses (serious my dad spent a year yelling at me for not wanting to go to the local university. Everyday. For a year. My mother curses me out for not doing unnecessary chores around the house i.e washing three cups that are in the sink. While her sister is only yelled at for more reasonable offenses (wanting to go to a night club etc.) I received an award for my community service, get an A in a college course while still in high school, and interned a professional short film and only get told about how much travel time/you wasn't the only one/that doesn't matter no signs pride from either one of them only a constant remainder of the things I do "wrong"

Arguably the case of this troper's ''father''. His younger brother and sister are closer to his mother than he is, and she never even tries to come visit (we haven't seen her in ''years'') even though we've stated constantly that we can't visit her for various reasons (schedules, travel expenses, etc.); this is despite the fact that she actually ''lives with'' one of his younger siblings (I forget which, since we don't exactly see eye-to-eye with that part of the family). She also doesn't get along with my (admittedly rather coarse) mother, and may even have an unfavorite ''grandchild'' in the form of my ''brother'', because he has the same name as his grandpa (the two, apparently, did not have a very pleasant divorce). My grandfather, on the other hand, doesn't really apply here, since he lives ''across the country'' from ''all'' of his children (perhaps making ''all'' of them the unfavorites?).

Some what of a mild case for This troper, his brother is never around so Most of the stress of an unspecified Parents rage is inexplicably forced onto him.

This Troper's relationship with his father is like this but then he starts randomly sweet talking me affectionately. Kinda weird, but I'm glad he doesn't live with us anymore.

This troper's father. The "favorite" was his younger sister, who is my aunt. I couldn't experience it myself, as my paternal grandfather (my father's father) died long before I was born. Any time I try to talk to him about it, he completely shuts down, mumbling things like "Beatings every day...my sister could do no wrong... To this day, my grandmother is sort of TheAtoner.

My boss told me a funny story. A father had two sons, one who went into football and the other ballet. He favored the his football playing son and dismissed the other as being a 'pansy' and unmanly, even calling him gay. Eventually he had two bombshells dropped on him. The first was his favorite son, the one playing football... Was gay. His father was dumbfounded by this and asked why a gay person would want to play football. Answer: That were all the buff guys were. The second bombshell was his 'gay' son had gotten four girls knocked up. Turns out the unfavorite was quite GenreSavvy and got into ballet for the purpose of meeting girls.

This Troper's mother is the unfavorite, for some bizarre reason. Out of my mother's side of the family, she is the most selfless of she and her siblings, goes up to visit at least twice a year despite living three states away, and assists with her mother's medical conditions despite living three states away and her elder sister, a registered nurse, living less than an hours drive from her parents home. Even so, she constantly gets calls from her mother talking and mooning about her "poor older siblings," all three of whom are selfish buggers that never actually do anything to deserve the praise.

Same troper as above. By contrast, this Troper is her mother's favorite due to being overall more affectionate than her sister and the "good child" who doesn't openly push boundries. The tragic part is, she believes her unfavorite sister acts out mostly because she feels like the unfavorite and does it for the attention...

This troper's immediate family uses the Unfavourite trope left, right, and sideways: I'm my mother's Unfavourite and my father's favourite, while my brother is my mother's favourite and believes he's the family unfavourite. And for a while, I thought that I was only the Unfavoutite in my head, but recent events claim otherwise... My brother, despite what he thinks, isn't the Unfavourite of either my mother or father; my father just has difficulty expressing himself with boys,likely because my father was his father's Unfavourite.

This Troper is Asperger, and her father is even further on the autism spectrum. One day during a casual conversation, my mother said that if she had known how much trouble my dad & I were going to be with the autism, she would have had an abortion and gotten a divorce. She quickly amended this by saying she would never go back in time to change anything because then my younger sister (who is normal like mom) would not have been born, and "we wouldn't want that." Ironically my mother was The Unfavorite in her own family, and went out of her way to treat my sister and I equally. If one got a diamond ring, the other got a diamond ring. I was actually scolded because my grandmother bought me a stereo for my junior high graduation and my sister had not not gotten anything even though sis was 6 years behind in 2nd grade & likely would have gotten the same thing upon her own junior high graduation. (Also note *I* was scolded for my grandmother's actions & I had not even asked for the stereo.) Needless to say This Troper sobbed like a little bitch with a skinned knee during Faramir's scenes with his father Denethor in The Two Towers and Return of the King.

Sometimes I feel like this cause I am the oldest child to a single mother, and since my parents split up I have been pretty much the second parent. I have a sister who is three years younger than me, and I feel that she is the favourite one, as she is the clever one who gets good grades, plays guitar, good at painting, popular at school...I was clever at first but now often get D's, and I dont have any special talents.

This Troper and her sister in a rather strange way. I'm my father favourite, and she's my mother's favourite. But we insist on gaining the affection of the parent that doesn't favour us. Always ends in tears as my father think my charming, popular and LovableLibby little sister is vain and not smart enough to deserve his attention. While my mother is kind of scarred and appalled by my stoic behaviour and my lack of feminity or displays of affection. We have issues, specially as they will fight to protect they favourtie, as kids our relation stood between inexistant and TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry but since I became a teen the relationship improved greathly.

My brother was born 11 weeks premature, survived and is now very healthy, has the best bod in the whole family, has tons of friends, goes to a real college, and is majoring in nursing. This Troper had a normal birth, is slightly overweight, is an aspie who has problems with social skills and is a DeadPanSnarker going to a junior college and is majoring in theater. Guess who the parents have to contantly tell the other that "we love you both equally!"?

This Troper's sister is her grandmother's unfavourite, which just seems to get worse and worse as times go on. Granted, said sister is selfish and can be very bitchy, but her grandma was treating her like she was long before she actually became like this (coincidence? Hmmm). Grandma constantly tells this troper how pretty she is and tells her sister off for being vain, told this troper how great she was in a play whilst completely ignoring her sister's (whose life ambition is to be an actress) part, and praises this troper for being smart, disregarding her sister's consistently higher grades and much better work ethic - her blatant favouritism of this troper means that her sister now has an irrational hatred of her, even though she herself acknowledges that this is unfair and unreasonable.

This troper, despite being an only child, is TheUnfavorite to her second cousin/cousin-twice-removed? (our immediate family is so small, we know and regularly visit family we're barely related to.) It might just all be in my head, but my second cousin, "Sarah," is my age and everything I'm not. She's smarter than I am, gets more awards than I do, has gone to ''international competitions'' in all sorts of things and ''won repeatedly'', is more obedient than I am, works harder than me, actually continued competitive swimming (unlike me), and actually wants to pursue a career in engineering. (We're a family of engineers, and I get a lot of flack for wanting to go to art school.) I get compared to her a lot. And with all that going for her, I am ''amazed'' I haven't been disowned yet.

This troper is, arguably, TheUnfavorite /BlackSheep/ ButtMonkey of her family. Her older sister is a perfectionist with straight As, her little sister is fast becoming a high standing social figure, and this troper seems to never measure up to her parents standards. Along with this, she doesn't have a large number of friends or acquaintances, unlike her sisters who are both in the "popular" crowd. She also somehow manages to do "badly" in school (read: a mix of mostly As and Bs with the occasional C in AP classes) despite the general consensus of her peers and family that she is a genius. Her mother used to rant incessantly about her shortcomings to her, and has been known not to show sympathy when she's visibly sick or injured, but has recently lessened these actions thanks to a sort of (probably temporary) truce. This troper has also recently fallen out of favorite status with her father, in part of a pre-truce incident involving a chronically ranting mother and an imminent threat to her internet router getting close and personal with the pool (as a result of a botched reconciliation) which culminated in her father threatening to send her to military school. She's been informed by friends that some of what her mother does is borderline (if not legitimate) emotional abuse, and even if she doesn't agree, she fears that all of this has probably monumentally screwed her sanity over (a bad thing considering that insanity quite literally runs on her fathers side). At this point, as soon as she gets to college, she's never coming home.

This troper's friend ''believes'' she is the Unfavorite, and constantly moans about how terrible her parents are to her, but from all of this troper's observations, her parents amazingly kind, generous, understanding and forgiving towards their daughter (certainly moreso than this troper has been at times). This troper has not seen their interaction with her friend's brother very often, but assumes the children are equal in their parents' eyes, and is certain that if they do have a favorite at all, there is no way it isn't the daughter.

This troper ''used'' to consider herself the Unfavorite, somewhat justifiably in that her older brother, though very smart, has Tourettes, and so her parents would spend more time helping her brother with his homework, reading, discussing how to improve his situation in school, etc. Once she entered high school and her brother entered college, this shifted somewhat, because the brother was 6 hours away and the parents felt guilty about not giving her as much time before, so parental focus centered on her (in a kind of smothering way. Though they were still put a lot of time into her brother and his college situation, they were much more hands off). And now that the brother is out of college and searching for a more career-worthy job while this troper is in college, the situation has shifted entirely and whenever she comes home she feels too much like the favorite. This leads to a weird dynamic, because she became so used to being an only child that whenever all four of them are together become infinitely more obnoxious and attention-seeking at first until things settle down, while when she's the "only" child she is reclusive and wishes her parents wouldn't be so inquisitive. In retrospect, neither child has ever been an Unfavorite, and whoever's the current Favorite shifts slightly in one's favor depending on which one their mother feels is being more productive with their time at the moment/which one has just come home/which one is home while the other's away/which one is away while the other is home. It's a very fluid dynamic.

This troper. In his immediate family, his parents keeps making unfair comparisons of him to his younger sister, and anything his sister does wrong, he gets the punishment. And his father keeps chiding him as stupid. Despite the fact that he's the computing and electronics whiz in the house. Thankfully tho, his extended family (i.e. grandparents and second aunt) cares for him.

This troper is autistic, but this trope isn't averted. I just hope I can at manage to subvert the trope. All his siblings get nearly all the positive attention. When his mother experienced the blue screen of death, she blamed me when for all I know, it could've been her fault. If the trope isn't subverted, then he's going to deconstruct the trope immediately when he goes berserk, right there, right then.

This troper {{{@/Windrays}}} is this, hardcore. I'm the oldest of three, a quiet, cynical Aspy with dyed hair who could be described as a "decaf Goth/Hipster/Burlesque/Vaudeville blend." I'm ''constantly'' the one who's blamed for their problems, especially in favour of my so-called perfect younger brother, who went to a prep school, played lacrosse, football, and hockey, and is a very devout Christian, despite the fact that he's a horrible prickish kid whose main focuses in life are getting laid and getting drunk. My parents especially loathe the fact that I took a leave from college to start a business, whereas my brother is ''perfect'' because he's still in college, despite the fact that while I was still attending school, I had a 3.5 GPA and was taking 18 credits a semester, whereas he is flailing and very close to dropping out. My younger sister, who recently enrolled in a cyber-schooling programme to finish her high school, is not faring much better on the favouritism department, either, despite her fantastic marks... BigScrewedUpFamily does not even ''begin'' to describe us.

This troper's parents play this up for laughs with her. Seriously. This includes jokes about keeping her locked in the dungeon and feeding her gruel and/or dogfood.

This tropette's younger brother was this academically. Seriously. He failed most of his classes and he had the "easy A" teachers. The same teachers this tropette had. (Yes, I was a straight A student.)

My younger sister was this too because she was melodramatic.

I've been told this is what my step-family is to my grandfather. He got remarried when my father was a teenager to a woman with several younger sons. Now, I've never considered them "step"-uncles, nor do I view any of my cousins as "step" anything. But my parents explained to me that because we live closer and because we're "blood", and are capable of passing down the family name, he loves us more. I have a feeling my oldest uncle knows this, because he generally dislikes spending time with us and is the only member of my family to use the word "step-brother" when discussing my father.

My mother was (and still is) my grandmother's Unfavorite. She was constantly picked on by her older sister and was always second in line for anything. Unfortunately, when she had kids of her own, the memories of being the put-upon younger child stuck with her, causing her to overcompensate and always take the younger child's side in ''every'' sibling conflict. It kinda sucks being the older child in this household.

Both this troper's parents were the Unfavorite. Mom is the oldest of five, often stood up against her abusive father to protect her siblings (earning herself more abuse in the process), worked her ass off as a single mother with me when I was young to ensure I had the best education possible, and basically moved into the hospital with my grandmother for a month, non-stop, taking her into our house afterwards when my grandmother had to have a liver transplant. Out of the entire family, only her youngest sister (whom she essentially raised) likes her at all. Dad was not necessarily the Unfavorite, but the favorite died slowly of leukemia when he was only 18, and Grandma always held him up as an example to everyone else, and continues to do so today.