A mother looking at photos of herself and her husband with their one-year-old toddler was left in no doubt who his favorite is.
It is not uncommon for children to have this a favorite parent. In 2019, a survey of 2,000 adults commissioned by ChannelMum.com found that 40 percent of respondents considered their mother their favorite parent, while around one in seven preferred their father.
However, such loyalties can chop and change. The same survey found that while many were initially closer to their mothers, as many as 35 percent of respondents considered their fathers their favorite at age 13. For many, the situation changed again when they reached the age of 20, with 35 percent admitting they have returned to preferring the company of their mother at this point in their lives.
These findings should provide some comfort to Nathalie Blue, a Canadian mother of two young boys who recently shared a video with her TikTok@_nathb, in which her eldest son, who is 18 months old, makes his preference abundantly clear.
TikTok/@_nathb
It all started when her son started browsing a bookshelf in the living room and came across a surprise.
“My son grabbed the books from our shelf and started looking through them,” Blue said Newsweek. “He loves reading books, but I don’t think he expected a book full of pictures of his mom and dad.”
As he looked through the photo album, Blue noticed her son pointing it out his “dada” over and over again. Even though she tried her best to get him to say “mama” as she pointed to the pictures of her, time and time again he only had eyes for “dada.”
Blue eventually filmed the interaction and posted it to her TikTok. Although she feigns annoyance, Blue said she enjoyed the interaction more than anything and certainly doesn’t take it personally.
“He loves his father,” she said. “I think anyone who has a toddler knows that the favorite can change in an instant. Some days Dad is the favorite and sometimes it’s me… usually he wants the one that isn’t immediately available to him.”
Blue also thinks her son deliberately avoided saying “mommy” in an attempt to provoke a reaction from her. “I think he knew he was funny, he has a cheeky little personality,” she said.
Whatever the case, she doesn’t regret filming this hilarious and adorable encounter.
“I love filming him doing such cute things. I love looking back on those moments and sharing them with my family,” she said.
Blue also hopes that mothers who experience similar things can take comfort from the clip. “You are not alone if your child only wants to say daddy, even though he or she can say mommy,” she said.