Grandfather sticks up for 16-year-old after his parents criticize him for his video game career aspirations, his golden child 14-year-old brother refuses to accept he's not everyone's favorite: ‘He gets spoiled rotten’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Jul 18, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

How does one know if they're the family favorite? After all, if you are the golden goose, you probably have always been the favorite of the bunch. So, you wouldn't really know any other way of life other than all of the special treatment you received growing up. Your siblings, if they haven't brought it up already, probably know you're the star of the show too.

Neglected children adopt a certain level of scorn as a result of this golden child favoritism. Entitled parents oftentimes think that their words are not harsh or impactful, and they assume that a child can change their interests and needs at the drop of a hat. Obviously, this is not the case, so the parents continue to grow more and more frustrated, and the favoritism and sibling comparisons only get worse.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to beg for the love and affection of our family members. However, we are not in a utopia, and real life stinks. This next story illustrates how one can be great in school, have individual hobbies, and be a generally good kid, and still face ostracism and emotional neglect from their parents because they didn't turn out exactly how their mom and dad expected. What happened to individuality?

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    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "AITA for telling my younger brother to ***k off and he can't be everyone's favorite and that I wish he wasn't my brother?"

    I (16m) have a younger brother (14m) and he's our parents and our grandma's favorite. I'm grandpa's favorite but I think it's
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  • only because he knows I don't get treated the same and would be totally overlooked if he didn't favor me and show me the attention he does.
    via MileOZels
  • My brother gets whatever he wants, he's praised for doing nothing and every time he does something, like help with a football game, he gets spoiled
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  • rotten and praised for being such a good athlete. When he said he wanted to go pro when he's older our parents and grandma were all for it and said he was so amazing
    via MilesOZels
  • and how great it is that he's inspired to be like that. They were so happy they let him away with not doing chores for like 6 weeks.
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  • My brother can say he's not feeling the best and asks if I'll take over our chores and our parents expect that. But even if
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  • I'm sick I'm expected to do mine and if I ask him to take mine over because I'm sick he says no and they scold me for trying to get out of my responsibilities.
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  • My parents don't really care about my interests the same way they do my brother's and neither does grandma. The three of them say pretty often that I should be
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  • more athletic like my brother and they told me if I played football or basketball I'd be more interesting but all I want to do is play video
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  • games and code and that's not something they can get behind. Grandma even said she would never support my wish to see if I
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  • can make a career out of them and there would be no more gifts ever if I decided to become "one of those weird people who games on the internet for money".
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    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • My brother is always asking me to help him or give him stuff but he never wants to do the same back. He's always unhappy when
    via MileOZels
  • I don't support him at football but he brushes off whenever I try to talk about the favoritism to him. He expects everyone to be so
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  • one sided and he's 14 and younger than me and I get we're both still really young but f that. Why do I have to do better than him all the time.
    via MileOZels
  • It actually caused a huge fight when grandpa started to support my interest. He bought me some retro consoles and games and
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  • stores them at his and grandma's house for me. I go over when everyone else is going crazy for my brother and play them.
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  • Grandma hated that because she didn't like their house being used for supporting "that kind of hobby". My brother found out
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  • about them because grandma told him and he got jealous. Then he asked grandpa to let him play and grandpa told him they're mine and nobody else gets to play.
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  • My brother was mad about that and said it's not fair that I get to be grandpa's favorite and he shouldn't treat us so different. This is where I was maybe too
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  • much of an AH because I told him to f off because he can't be everyone's favorite and that he has our parents and grandma so the least I can have is one person
    via MilesOZels
  • who gives a sh about me instead of him. My brother taunted me and said I was jealous and that I shouldn't talk to him
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  • like that. So I told him to off again only I was angry this time and he was like come on you're still my brother and I said I wish I wasn't.
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  • Now he's upset, our parents are mad and grandpa is fighting them and grandma. My brother's like you're still my brother and I told him he's selfish and never wants to do anything for me so why would I be glad he's my brother. AITA?
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  • Collussus96 NTA At least you have your grandpa on your side.
    via Collussus96
  • MildLittlRain Don't worry. You're the one who's gonna make it in life. Brother won't survive out there. Although go for the coding as a carreer, not gaming right away. The world needs ciding way more than gaming and you sound like a smart dude. Don't waste it!
    via MildLittlRain
  • Brennz1 We need insight into you, your NTA your 16, academically where are you going, you game and code, are you really coding are you aiming for a school that fosters this curriculum, do you carry a grade point that a college will accept you on these merits, all aspects of life require some dedication learned skill and repetitive practice and understanding, if your just grasping at an Atari and moving through life you'll be in for a shock, life isn't a free ride and jobs aren't just handed over
    via Brennz1
  • MileOZels My grades are good. Math and science are my best subjects overall.
    via MileOZels

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family dynamics family drama entitled parents entitlement reddit story family feud favoritism parenting favorite entitled Grandpa family grandparents reddit thread parent Reddit golden child Parenting Fail parents entitled people Parenting FAILS
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