>>82232263
I don't necessarily think it was because she was a single mother of two (same father), but after a good start to school, my good academic performance became background noise to her. At some point, I would get treats or gifts for doing so well in school, but that rapidly dropped off. I was low-maintenance in comparison to my younger sibling. My sibling was the favorite, though. There are many points where she did something for my sibling, like taking time off from work to pick them up from school once a week and going out to eat together, that she never did for me. Especially on birthdays, she would spoil my sibling with games and clothes. At some point, she bought my sibling a 3DS, then bought him several replacements after he broke them. I would get a single game at best, or some trinket picked up from the dollar store that day.
Looking back on it, I remember being insanely anxious as a child. I hated going places with my mom, like her friend's house, or the store, or even relatives I wasn't familiar with, since it meant hours I would have to endure away from my room. I was low maintenance because I was so scared to step out of line and do something wrong. I was so anxious that I had severe insomnia from the ages of like 8-12. My sibling acted out constantly. He was constantly in trouble in school, trouble with kids in the neighborhood, had run-ins with the law, he was even accused of raping someone and threatened to kill our mom several times. But whatever, he's the baby, so it can all be ignored. Even now that we're adults, he's still coddled by her.
I think what made me realize the extent to which she had a favorite was what happened after I moved out. Growing up, I had chores; my brother didn't. The one I hated the most was the dishes; I washed them by hand, and it took forever. I would rarely argue with my mom about it. But the moment I moved out, she's suddenly okay with using a dishwasher over hand washing???
