middle child

[Miss-read]

Has being a middle child affected you in any way? Even into adulthood?

[ummmm]

I'm not a middle child but I do wonder. My eldest loves my youngest but hates the middle one......I really hope he doesn't have middle child syndrome!

[Miss-read]

Hi ummmm, Your oldest probably makes more of a fuss of the youngest as he/she is the baby still. But as long as you treat them all the same (know its not easy as I have 4 children) But do my best! Then the middle one will be fine.

I cant figure out if I am a middle child, as am second eldest to family of 5 of us. But have always felt "the odd one out"

[Le Chat]

My friend was a middle child and felt like she was never listened to and was unimportant. Her needs always second to the oldest and youngest.
In later life, she has adopted a " no one's gonna ignore me now!" kind of attitude. "You will listen to me!!" This has made her have very unreal expectations of people and of how they live their lives.
She suffers from road rage, intolerance of others and drops people the minute their plans don't fall in line with her. It has made her a thoroughly unpleasant person.

[noxlumos]

I'm very aggressive, driven and competative and I'm the 3rd of 4 children, but there are other issues with my childhood.My own kids don't seem to have this barring perhaps one, whose capable of being a bit stroppy on occasions but they do all moan that everyone takes notice of the older ones ( untrue) so maybe there is something in it.

[bednobs]

what a load of twaddle! what has being a middle child got to do with anything? If you are the sort of person who shifts responsibility for how you are onto someone else, you could just as easily say "its because im the oldest/youngest/only child"

[crete]

yes.

[badgerchops]

i totally have middle child syndrome and i am now 32. haha.. (i'm not kidding either). Parents say they love you the same but theres always the love for the first born and for the baby. A middle child doesnt have 'ooh your in the middle love'. It is always different and you don't have a place so to speak in the family.

Being called a 'middle' child says it all really.

ooh i could go on and on...... :-)

[Pippa68]

I am the oldest and most ignored child, actually. I was put out to seed as each other baby was born..

The middle child (my sister) is the most outgoing of the three of us..I say outgoing as to me that is a more pleasant term than 'attention seeking' ;o) she is a real go-getter, while my brother and myself are much more laid back and don't like a fuss. My sister has to have the best of everything, and has been like that since birth...

[badgerchops]

i am still very much the loudest and most confident out of the three despite being the middle child. I also have more to say than my siblings

[unruliejulie]

Not me personally as im the youngest of 3. I do believe it badly affected my middle brothers self confidence though. My eldest bro was very clever and always did extremely well in anything he did, my other bro didnt and this was hard for him. I was the baby and the only girl so that didnt help either. He has always felt he has to compete but never quite comes up to scratch. This has affected who he is today, i believe. That could be more to do with the person he is than at what point he was born but my grandma always used to tell him how the eldest one was better at things than him. He was neither here nor there in the pecking order.I think there has been some proof to show that middle child syndrome does exist but obviously it varies from family to family.

[joko]

in a discussion a few months ago my dad was talking about his will, and how everything will be divided equally between all of us, but then casually added "well obviously your brother gets a bit more because he's the oldest and your sister gets more because she is the baby of the family"

now, if there were 5-6 of us i could maybe understand - or if there were 10 years difference in our ages - but there are 3 of us!! and we are all only about 2 years apart!

i actually had to point out to him that what he is actually suggesting is that I am left out because i am in the middle - he hadn't even thought of it like that - he just had this in-built idea that the eldest and the baby get special treatment.

he was one of 8 siblings

so yes it does affect people, even if only because the parents have this in-built unfair notion of birth order labels and adopt them without thinking.

[Miss-read]

Thanks for your input. Bit late to reply now. But thanks to you all for your replies.