Most parents try very hard to treat their children fairly and equally.
A recent study we conducted at the University of Illinois has revealed, however, that children generally do understand why their parents treat them differently, and they think it's okay, even if they don't enjoy it at the time. It's not because she loves my sister more. If she didn't care, then she wouldn't punish me. The results of this study revealed that children generally do see their parents as doing a pretty good job of treating them equally, and that when differential treatment does occur, they usually think it's fair. We also found that when children understand that differential treatment occurs in the service of meeting one child's particular needs, they tend to have better sibling relationships.