Do you believe in the power of birth order? There are books and books written on how the order of your birth matters in life and determines your personality. I am no physiologist, but I certainly believe that the order of your birth definitely matters- it may not determine whether or not you are a kind or mean person, a neat or messy person or a calm or chaotic person; but it certainly determines whether or not you get all the hand me downs or not! Last week I talked about some of the perks of being the oldest child, and this week it’s time to list some for the middle child!
I am the middle child so this list is neat and dear to me. I’ve always read that the middle child is the peace keeper and I absolutely believe that is true. The middle child is often the forgotten one, and while I don’t get offended at that, I can see how that can happen. There are some perks though of being the middle child, and here are ten:
1.Since you are the forgotten one- you can sneak some extra cookies and no one will notice.
2.Your parents have already “pros” at things like potty training and sleep training, so it was easier on you.
3.There are also less pictures of you in odd situations (like sitting on the toilet) because now there are TWO kids in the family and no one has time for that anymore!
4.Your baby book is less full, but not completely blank.
5.As the diplomat of the family, you often wield tremendous power (even more as you get older!)
6.You have more freedom of the oldest- and slightly less expectations then them too.
7.You get to hand down your hand-me-downs.
8.You have an older sibling that you can look up to and ask advice from, and borrow their clothes.
9.You have a younger sibling that you can boss around, protect and also blame things on (it’s the best of both worlds!)
10.When you are parent, you give lots of extra attention to YOUR middle child!
I may be bias (yes, yes I am!) but I think being the middle child is great. Less immediate expectations from your parents allows you more freedom in life and I think we are very creative, independent and resilient. It’s not always the best to be the forgotten one, but if you use it to your advantage, it can turn out pretty great! Next week I get to share some perks of being the youngest- and all of us middle kids (or older ones!) can concur how many of them there are!!
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