Do you think there is such a thing called Middle Child Syndrome and does the order of birth affect the overall personality of the individual? I do think so.
Middle child is always seeking approval from parents for the things that they do and would try hard to please their parents and therefore they can either be
1. Obliging or
2. Rebellious but still highly independent, to seek for the attention they so much desired. The analogy is simple. For the first child, being first-time parents, they tend to be more protective over the first-born's well being, 100% parental attention is showered onto the child’s development from the time he’s still an infant. But, for the 2nd child, parents become more relaxed, being experienced parents that they are, they are less likely to be overprotective.
As a matter of fact, as in most cases, parents would still shower more attention to the first child, to appease the elder child of his sibling jealousy. Since the elder child would have felt that the once 100% attention had been robbed from him, parents had to guide him through the process of accepting his younger sibling. Which in turn explains the bullying older sibling often subjected the younger sibling to. Then comes the youngest child, who will be the baby of the family and being the youngest, will be considered as the most dependent, needless to say. Hence, middle child will always be deprived of parental attention having had to share the attention and are always expected, to be the independent one. As they grow older, they try hard to seek for approval for the things that they do. Middle child is usually the quieter, independent, very obliging and reserved individual, always trying means and ways to please their parents or the opposite could be true, i.e. rebellious.
Thus, this middle child syndrome develops their overall personality up until adulthood consciously or unconsciously.
Oh and there is an article that compared the Middle Child Syndrome to a game called Monkey In the Middle, often played by children. Two children will stand on opposite ends and throw a ball at each other while the middle child struggles to grab the ball, barely gets the oppotunity to grab it from the two. While this game may be fun and exciting, it is not so when it turns into real life situation, where the middle one is struggling to grasp, instead of the ball, the attention.
And I, played this game a lot when I was young.
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Maybe, in the future, I shall have only 2 children – the eldest and the youngest, so that none is subjected to this middle child syndrome despite the promised baby bonus. Ahakz!
-- tea's thoughts --
6:55 AM
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