Middle Child Syndrome

What Is Middle-Child Syndrome?

According to WebMD, many experts see “middle-child syndrome” as the idea that if you’re neither the oldest child nor the youngest, you get less attention from your parents and feel “caught in the middle”. As a result, the middle child(red) may take on certain personality traits that are different from those of your older and younger siblings.

As a mom of three girls, I notice three distinct personalities / characteristics / traits in my children.

The firstborn is reliable, conscientious, and cautious, of course, basking in parents’ attentions. The youngest, outgoing and charming, bossy, manipulative, social and “perfect”. The middle child, today’s main topic, are people-pleasers, rebellious, excellent negotiators, sensitive, have a strong sense of justice and fairness.

The three children are being treated differently. For the firstborn, we have a tendency to be more cautious and attentive to the smallest aspects. We “strict” to the firstborn in order to raise a perfect child, but we also indulge the firstborn.

Fun fact: Parents frequently take more pictures of their firstborn than they do of their other children. It is true for my family. Is it valid to yours?

For the youngest, we have greater patience and tolerance when it comes to children. The younger siblings have more “freedom” to attempt new activities that the older siblings are normally forbidden to do. Because she is the last child, we are attempting to enjoy her as a child rather than having the task of raising a perfect child.

For the middle child, parents are attempting to apply all of the lessons learned from their firstborn to the middle child. With all of their experiences and the lessons they’ve learned, they believe they’ll be able to raise a perfect child.

How to Handle Middle Child Syndrome Behavior? What should we do to deal with middle child syndrome ?

From my experience, I learned several things as a mother with three daughters:
Offer reassurance,
Include them (don’t leave them out),
Praise them for their accomplishments- even for small things
Give them more quality time.

They must demonstrate that their parents love them and are not ignoring them. My middle child usually complained that I was more concerned with her older and younger siblings. I usually reassure her that mom treats them equally and that one may receive slightly more attention than the other for various reasons. But you must ensure that your mother loves you always and forever.

If possible, schedule some mommy-daughter time with just the middle child ( good idea to have it with each of the individual kids). They will feel special as a result of this.

I recommend four books to you, one for parents and the other three for parents to read with their children. Kevin Leman wrote all of them.

I had so much fun reading each of the books to each of the children. They all discover something that is related to them.

I hope this article was useful to you in some way. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section. Happy Parenting!

1. The birth order book
2. My firstborn, there’s no one like you.
3. My middle child, there’s no one like you.
4. My youngest, there’s no one like you.