(1033) Parents' Preference

We'll be talking about two sets of brothers. The first set is Ken and Kenneth, they are Corrine's (The Poor Little Rich Girl post) cousins. The second set is Jon and Johnny, these are sons of my good friend.

Ken is thirteen years old and Kenneth is two years younger. Ken is a straight forward boy and is rather serious in temperament. Kenneth is quite a charmer. To me, both have regular features and are pleasant looking. However, the parents and the grandparents dote on the younger. If anything is wrong, Ken definitely bears the blame.

Jon is the eldest of three children. Johnny is two years younger. I still remember listening to my friend relating how the paediatrician gave a talking to on food refusal to her and her husband. She is a judge professionally, having children rather late in life made her an anxious mom. Years later, I could see that she allowed that experience to cloud her judgement on her eldest child. She still smarted over the shame of being told off, having to admit that a little child of thirteen months manipulated both her and her husband.

Johnny is a child of good circumstances, after his birth, many things went right for both mom and dad. As a result of that, the parents greatly preferred him to the other two. On top of that, Johnny has gift of the gab, he is handsome and confident.

Parents sometimes wear coloured glasses. In both cases, outsiders could see at a glance that Ken and Jon are nice and trustworthy boys. Yet respective parents beg to differ. They were taken in by the sweet words from the younger boys. Unless things are clear cut and obvious, the second kids get away with a lot and the elder ones tend to bear the short end of the stick.

Both families are quite wealthy. My friend inherited millions and is adding to the pile. Ken and Kenneth's grand parents have extensive land holdings. As far as my son and I could see, Ken and Jon are walking on the straight and narrow path. Kenneth began to associate with the playful and the lazy ones. Johnny preferred to mix with exclusively white boys after the family immigrated to Australia. That in itself is nothing wrong, the only thing one is concerned about is if he is ashamed of his Asian heritage. Nothing will make his skin white, even Michael Jackson remained black after all his skin bleaching. It will be interesting to watch what happen to these four boys ten years down the line.