Are you a middle child?

[Connonym]

Do you believe there's any truth to what they say about birth order? I'm a middle child and I have all the classic symptoms. I hate being a stereotype, dammit.


ETA
MIDDLES - The diplomats

Middle children tend to be flexible, diplomatic peacemakers.

Getty Images, PhotolibraryHaving been pushed around by their eldest sibling and having their patience stretched by the youngest, they gather skills of diplomacy and assertiveness.

"They are the social glue which holds groups together," says Mr Grose.

"Like anyone who's stuck in the middle, they learn to compromise and to get on with people."

But often they get left out. Not the eldest and not the baby, a middle child can go either way: some become more difficult, others more resilient.

However, the "difficult middle child" syndrome (think Jan from The Brady Bunch) might be a myth.

"I'm not sure that it's always true, but middles can be the ones who have more difficult lives," says Mr Grose. "Sometimes they can get lost in the middle somewhere."

Frequently the first in the family to head off overseas or leave home, middles tend not to have the same strong ties with their parents as perhaps their siblings, he adds.

But they usually "develop good people skills, expect a little bit less of life and are more likely to go with the flow."

Many middleborn children tend to have several interests, or even obsessions. This is usually because they tend to try to find themselves more often than the firstborn or the youngest of the family.

The middle child may have an even-temper and a take it or leave it attitude (Adler, 1956). Adler (1956) believed the middle child feels squeezed out of a position of privilege and significance. The child is internally compelled to find peace within the family and may have trouble finding a place or become a fighter of injustice (Adler, 1956).

[Ariana Celeste]

1. I am the youngest, middle, & oldest

Depending on the parent.

:P

[Aristus]

2. I'm the middle. Older sister, younger brother.

Don't really know what the sterotype of a middle child is supposed to be...

[Connonym]

3. I'm the middle of 5

I associated middle-childness with feeling left out and forgotten, feeling like it's my job to be peacemaker, etc. It's not that there's an overt competitiveness but I always felt like my older sibs were pioneering and doing stuff to freak out my parents while my younger sibs were doing cute little things and being the babies while I was sort of just there in the middle garnering no attention whatsoever. Maybe it's all bullshit and I'm just really neurotic but I've noticed this in friends who are middles, a strong feeling of not belonging to the "big kids" or the "little kids." Very Jan Brady.

[Left Is Write]

13. I'm as middle as you are - #3 of five.

Two older, two younger.

The two older are 18 months apart. I came three years after #2. There are three and a half years between me and #4 - and #4 and #5 are 21 months apart.

The older two are close in age. The younger two are close in age. Me? I'm way out there in the middle. It doesn't matter so much now that we're all in our 30s and 40s, but growing up, I felt like the only one without a partner.

[Deja Q]

4. I am yet I am not, nor am I both and I am neither.

I am an only child.

[RetroLounge]

5. I am the middle of 3 boys...

and a classic middle child, too, I might add...

RL

[woo me with science]

6. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!!!!!!

Here, have a locket...

[idgiehkt]

7. my dad was in the middle and got lost

he was the 'lost child'

I was in the middle too, and I think he saw himself in me, cause he pretty much hated my guts.

[undeterred]

8. I am the middle of 3 as were both of my parents

Like you, I am the one who feels left out. I am also expected never to have any problems, or if I do, to solve them on my own, without family help... but I am also expected to "be there" for other family members.

[havocmom]

9. Yep

Classic middle child here. And very happily wed to another middle child, we are no longer 'lonely in the middle' - we understand each other much better than the people who have know either of us since birth ever could.

Pragmatic, peacemaker, glue, keeper of the hearth. Always looking to understand even more.

Yep.

[trof]

10. Miz t. was 4th of six. "Face in the Crowd."

That's how she felt as a kid.
3 boys, 3 girls

[philosophie_en_rose]

11. I'm about the middle (there are an even number of us) and don't fit.

The first sibling is juvenile and irresponsible.
The middle two are agitators, not peacemakers.
The youngest is juvenile and irresponsible.

[Archae]

12. Middle child here also.

Two older sisters and two younger.

I got it in BOTH ends. :-)

[City Lights]

14. I'm the middle of 3 girls, and very much a "middle."

So much so that I didn't want a middle child of my own.

[Connonym]

15. I understand that feeling

I've got 2 kids and always sort of wanted another but I didn't want the middle child thing. My family thinks I'm nuts.

[unsavedtrash]

16. I'm the middle of three girls

I am definitely a middle child.

[1gobluedem]

17. I'm the middle

And the family diplomat, without a doubt.

[reyd reid reed]

18. Girly-poo is a middle child

Two older brothers and two younger brothers.

This doesn't even come close. Not even in the same galaxy. Universe. Space-time-thingie.

[CBHagman]

19. A fighter of injustice? I like that!

And the reinvention part rings true as well.

[TOhioLiberal]

20. I am 4th of 5...

...sounds kinda Borgy, you know?