The Favorite Child Syndrome

(actual family photo... we call it "smile with your eyes"... my mom calls it "the professional photo you couldn't follow directions for")

I love my mom. We are so blessed to have a family that not only just gets along with one another, but we really, actually, enjoy being with each other. My sisters are closer to me than any friend of mine and my parents are, (don't let their heads blow up) but they are actually cool. Case in point, I took my mom to the Country Club tonight and she definitely can hang. (she actually raised me how to hang at the club, thanks to Pink Lemonade Manners Class and private manners classes from Madame Butterfly. I know that CL, Sal, and B are as ever thankful as myself.) My mom says that thanks to her, we could eat a dinner at the white house and fit right in. ( I don't know about you, but I'd rather eat dinner at G Dub's Ranch than at the white house with that Obama). anywho....

So we were chatting about something or another and my mom says, well, your father and I never had favorites, did we? hmmm... I blurted out my middle sisters name and immediately regretted it. She looked genuinely confused and perplexed. Which leads me to believe, that maybe, just maybe, she didn't have a favorite.(well, conciously she didn't) No hurt feelings, no negative feelings on my part, but lets be honest... We all have people we introduce, as follows, which shows the importance of their life to yours:
1) This is ____, my best friend.
2) This is my good friend, ____.
3) This is my friend, ___.
4) This is _____, have you met her?
5) This is ____. We work together.
or the infamous,
6) You introduce the date you came with b/c, for the life of you, you cannot remember the person you are introducing them to, even though they've asked you about your wedding, your sisters, your parents, and how excited you are about moving into your new house. I still have no idea who you are.
or my favorite
7) Hi. Have you met my sister, Lisa? She's single and loves to make out. (heheheh Lolita HATES when I do that, but it's just so funny, I can't help it!)

This gets me thinking, you obviously get along with some people better than others. So why wouldn't parents have the same dilemna? My mom says that she loves that we are all so different and we all have amazing relationships. (very good parent answer) All true things. I explained to her that I think Brooke is more of... what is that word??? oh yeah, a grown up adult. My mom is a grown up adult so why wouldn't they get along perfectly? People tend to think I'm still 24- 25 (which I adore) and my youngest sister pointed out, "Yeah, that's because you act like it Casey." Thanks, Lis, Thanks.

I digress. I don't have kids, but I will someday. How do you not have a favorite? I don't want to, but isn't it inevitable? Maybe it's just "today this one's being a sh*t so obviously I am preferring the other right now".? Or "thank goodness we raised one "right" that got off the payroll before 30. (I barely missed the cut-off by a week... what was I THINKING scheduling my wedding a week after my 30th birthday!?) what happened to self sufficiency?". Or it could be the old "This one gave me a grandchild first. When will the others catch up?" :) I kid, I kid (kind of).

Anyways, there are those crazies who have bred crazies and of course they have favorites. But I truly believe my parents love all three of us girls the same. At times, I drive my mom so crazy so she has to talk to the others about it and vice versa. But when it comes down to it, let's just say they are lucky to have any of us at all, and we couldn't have been given better parents ourselves. God is Good.

PS: MOM - IM TAKING OFF FRIDAY TO FINISH MY DAMN THANK YOU NOTES. I APPRECIATE YOUR ANNOYING PERSISTANCE. :)