"My husband "Jack" and I have two daughters, "Lily," 12, and "Emmy," 14. Lily is outgoing and has been into sports almost from the time she could walk, much to Jack's delight. He is very involved in coaching her soccer team and volunteers to take her and other students who go to her karate school all over for competitions. Emmy is the shy introvert who is into music and creative writing, which Jack could not care less about."
"Jack doesn't have to be interested in creative writing, but he does need to be supportive of the positive endeavors of his children. That's just table stakes for parenting. I think your best bet here is to focus on how Jack's behavior is harming his relationship with Emmy and Emmy's relationship with Lily. Ask him if he recognizes how Emmy feels. Tell him that he'll regret their lack of relationship later in life, but that he still has limited time to fix it."
Jack favors the athletic daughter by coaching and volunteering for her activities while largely ignoring the creative, introverted daughter. Emmy won a writing contest but received little acknowledgment and experienced a dismissive reaction from Jack about attending the award ceremony. Emmy feels increasingly hurt, and the favoritism is affecting her relationship with her sister. A parent need not share every interest but must still support each child's positive endeavors. The recommendation is to focus on how the behavior harms relationships, ask Jack to recognize Emmy's feelings, warn of future regret, and educate him about introversion.
Read at Slate Magazine
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