"Why Does Only She Get One?" — Sibling Inequity and the Record Gap

Audience: Parents raising more than one child, particularly families with a school-age older child alongside an infant or toddler
Target length: ~1,500 words
Status: Draft v1 (translated from Japanese v1)
Original: ../192_sibling_inequity.md

Lead

"Why does only my brother get one?" "There are way more photos of her." Moments like these have a developmental explanation. Before deciding how to respond emotionally, it helps to understand what is actually happening — and that shifts how a parent sees the situation.

The grievance usually surfaces as sibling friction, but the structure underneath has several layers: the child's cognitive development, the parent's objectively asymmetric behavior, and the gap in "evidence of love" that has been made visible through the record itself. Looking at each layer separately is the starting point for making sense of it.

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Lead

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