{"id":30939,"date":"2018-03-22T10:08:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T09:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/?p=30939"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:49:21","slug":"almost-half-of-grandparents-would-have-a-favourite-grandchild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/almost-half-of-grandparents-would-have-a-favourite-grandchild\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost half of grandparents would have a favourite grandchild"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gransnet recent survey<\/a>, done in partnership with Mumsnet<\/a>, reveals some shocking truths regarding an issue that many wouldn\u2019t like to acknowledge: favouritism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the survey of 2,000 parents and grandparents with more than one child, 23% of Mumsnet users admitted to having a favourite, while 42% of Gransnet users confessed to having a preferred grandchild.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A favourite grandchild… but why?<\/h2>\n

Gransnet’s favouritism survey reveals that almost half of grandparents have a favourite grandchild!<\/strong> Over half (56%) of parents stated that their favourite was the youngest child<\/strong> (26% preferred their oldest), whereas 39% of grandparents held their eldest in highest esteem.<\/p>\n

\"\"61% of parents said that their favourite child\u2019s siblings are more \u2018tricky or demanding\u2019. Grandparents didn\u2019t seem too fussed, with only 41% saying that their favourites are \u2018the easy one\u2019.<\/p>\n

One thing that seemed to unite both generations in picking their favourite is that for both parents (74%) and grandparents (67%), their child\/grandchild is unstintingly loving and affectionate.<\/strong>
\nHumour also plays a big part<\/strong>\u00a0because half of parents (51%) and 58% of grandparents admit to preferring the child that made them laugh the most.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only a few of those surveyed chose their favourites on physical resemblances<\/strong>, with just one-third of grandparents\u2019 favourite grandchildren reminding them of their own son or daughter.
\nFurthermore, less than half of the parents asked (41%) said that their favourite child reminds them of themselves, with only 14% of parents saying that their favourite child reminds them of their spouse.<\/p>\n

Do they feel bad?<\/h2>\n

\"\"51% of Gransnet users with a favourite grandchild, and a third (32%) of Mumsnet users with a favourite child, declare they aren\u2019t ashamed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Half of Mumsnet (55%) and Gransnet (50%) users agree that having a favourite is \u2018awful\u2019<\/strong>, and the majority think it\u2019s harmful for the favourite\u2019s siblings (78% of Mumsnet users and 56% of Gransnet users). Just under half think that favouritism is bad for the favourite themselves (45% of Mumsnet users and 34% of Gransnet users).<\/p>\n

In response to this, Mumsnet and Gransnet founder Justine Roberts<\/strong> said: \u2018Favouritism is one of the last taboos and can provoke a lot of guilt, so it\u2019s important to say that feeling a greater affinity for a particular child (…) is fairly common, and doesn\u2019t have to be disastrous. Toxic favouritism, where siblings become aware of being treated unfairly over the long term, is a whole other ball game. The distilled Mumsnet wisdom on this issue is that lots of parents like their children differently: the crucial thing is to love them all wholly.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Read also:\u00a0Intergenerational: a retirement house in the Netherlands proposes free accommodation for young students<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gransnet recent survey, done in partnership with Mumsnet, reveals some shocking truths regarding an issue that many wouldn\u2019t like to acknowledge: favouritism. In the survey of 2,000 parents and grandparents with more than one child, 23% of Mumsnet users admitted to having a favourite, while 42% of Gransnet users confessed to having a preferred grandchild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":30943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3256,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intergenerational","category-news"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Intergenerational-Grand-parents-2.jpg",748,312,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Intergenerational-Grand-parents-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Intergenerational-Grand-parents-2-300x125.jpg",300,125,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Intergenerational-Grand-parents-2.jpg",748,312,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Intergenerational-Grand-parents-2.jpg",748,312,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Intergenerational-Grand-parents-2.jpg",748,312,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Intergenerational-Grand-parents-2.jpg",748,312,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"SilverEconomy","author_link":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/author\/enredac26\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Gransnet recent survey, done in partnership with Mumsnet, reveals some shocking truths regarding an issue that many wouldn\u2019t like to acknowledge: favouritism. In the survey of 2,000 parents and grandparents with more than one child, 23% of Mumsnet users admitted to having a favourite, while 42% of Gransnet users confessed to having a preferred grandchild.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48361,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30939\/revisions\/48361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.silvereco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}