Middle Child Syndrome. Does it exist?!

[peachandpear]

Does anyone know if 'The Middle Child Syndrome' actually exists and if it does what is it exactly?

Probably, but no more so than eldest child syndrome and youngest child syndrome! Isn't it the theory that the eldest and youngest have a special place in the family, as does the only girl or only boy. A middle child of a same sex family is supposed to feel left out. I have 4 kids- 3 of them boys- and I can't say we've ever experienced that sort of problem.

(sorry, that's not much help)

I had a thread on this a while back, peachandpear, with exactly the same title! It's here .

my dp is a middle child 2 brothers, he said he got most of the attention cos everyone thinks middle child gets left out so he was overwelmed with attention from his parents now he's the most out spoken confident of the 3 of them!!

I am a middle child. The dynamics in our family are: eldest was hugely jealous of me. youngest was Mum's favourite. So yes, I suppose it was a unique position - but only cos my parents are crap.

My db is middle child with me older and a younger brother. HE says he didn't feel treated any differently and doesn't think he suffered 'middle child syndrome' (I was interested to know as I have 3 boys!)

From what I've heard it seems to exist more where first and second child are the same sex eg Mum's older sister got lots of attention for being first child and her younger brother got loads of attention for being the first boy whereas she felt there wasn't the same excitement for her because her parents had already had a girl. Heard that a lot from others. Dh on the other hand (sister, dh, brother) didn't have it at all but then he was the first boy. (On the other hand, I suspect temperament plays a part. I don't think dh would have been that bothered if he had missed out on some attention!)

My sister was extremely jealous of me (youngest of four) when we were teenagers, "you get everything etc." but when we were both in our late teens we had a serious conversation about how she was already being treated with respect and like an adult, and how I was always fighting to not be the baby of the family, and I think it really opened her eyes to what I was going through and she just seemed to get over it to be honest.

So think it does exist.

I don't think it does in our house, certainly doesn't get left out of stuff anyway.

I think that birth order is very important, but not neccessarily in a bad way. It is interesting to ask grown ups where they came in their family and compare characterisics. I am the youngest of four in my family, and my best friend as a child was the oldest of five in hers. It was good to swop every now and then. The grass was not greener - just different!

I think only middle children believe this "syndrome" exists