A big part of growing up is learning that life isn’t fair. There will always be someone better than you at something, and the quicker you accept that, the easier it will be to find what you will excel at. I went to school with so many brilliant and athletic kids, and there was comfort in knowing I would never be the smartest or most talented, but I could be the funniest. It also helped that my parents never compared me to my sister, who was objectively smarter and more gifted in basically every way. 

When a parent praises one child’s accomplishments but ignores the others, that can be a recipe for jealousy and resentment. One mother recently went viral on Reddit for sharing a quagmire she’s facing with her daughter and stepdaughter. She puts her daughter’s good grades on the fridge, which angers her stepdaughter because she doesn’t have any good grades to flaunt.