For all that the cultural mythology insists that mothers love all their children equally, the truth is that mothers (and fathers, for that matter) treat their children differently. In fact, it’s so much a part of family dynamics that it’s got its own acronym: PDT (Parental Differential Treatment). Some differential treatment is inevitable, having to do with the ages of the children; a four-year-old may feel that her infant sister is getting all the attention, for example, and unless the mother actively works to try out to balance out the scale by making sure that her older child has time alone with her, it’s probably going to be true.

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