Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have three children, all adults now. Dh is a middle child and had this concern, so we tried our best to treat everyone fairly and give each child an equal amount of attention. The result? All three children think that one of the other siblings was favored over the other two. Each of them named a different sibling! I guess is all depends on the perspective. We did our best.

Actually, PP, I've heard this is how you know you parented well! It's rare for each kid to think of themselves as the favorite (we all feel competitive with our siblings), so if every kid thinks another is the favorite, you did well. If everyone names the same kid, you really did favor one, and that's very very bad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a middle child who was overlooked. Example: when I stated middle school, the school was twice as far to walk as my elementary school. My dad told me to ride my bike. I pointed out I did not have a bike. He was surprised to learn this. I explained I’d never had a bike and did not actually know how to ride one. “How could you not know how to ride a bike?! You’re 11!” But… no one had ever bothered to try to teach me, plus I had no bike to ride.

My childhood is full of stories like this. So I would make sure you don’t just assume your middle child is being patented by osmosis, which is what my parents did.

I'll out story you. My Dad was stunned to hear I as a middle child had to take out loans to pay for my public college. He paid full freight for my sibling's private university tuition, just somehow forgot to help pay for my college.

I was not the middle child. I am the youngest of two and my parents did the same thing. Paid full fair for the oldest. Told me to take out loans for college and then they would pay them off when I graduated. They never paid them off. 20 years later, after I had paid them off plus a ton of extra for the interest, this came up in a discussion. My parents were surprised that I was a little salty about college costs. Turns out my dad thought my mom had paid them. Mom forgot. They ended up giving me the $$ for the base loan but not the interest I had paid. Just goes to show you parents make mistakes with all sorts of kids, middle or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a middle child who was overlooked. Example: when I stated middle school, the school was twice as far to walk as my elementary school. My dad told me to ride my bike. I pointed out I did not have a bike. He was surprised to learn this. I explained I’d never had a bike and did not actually know how to ride one. “How could you not know how to ride a bike?! You’re 11!” But… no one had ever bothered to try to teach me, plus I had no bike to ride.

My childhood is full of stories like this. So I would make sure you don’t just assume your middle child is being patented by osmosis, which is what my parents did.

I'll out story you. My Dad was stunned to hear I as a middle child had to take out loans to pay for my public college. He paid full freight for my sibling's private university tuition, just somehow forgot to help pay for my college.

Anonymous wrote:I have three children, all adults now. Dh is a middle child and had this concern, so we tried our best to treat everyone fairly and give each child an equal amount of attention. The result? All three children think that one of the other siblings was favored over the other two. Each of them named a different sibling! I guess is all depends on the perspective. We did our best.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a middle child who was overlooked. Example: when I stated middle school, the school was twice as far to walk as my elementary school. My dad told me to ride my bike. I pointed out I did not have a bike. He was surprised to learn this. I explained I’d never had a bike and did not actually know how to ride one. “How could you not know how to ride a bike?! You’re 11!” But… no one had ever bothered to try to teach me, plus I had no bike to ride.

My childhood is full of stories like this. So I would make sure you don’t just assume your middle child is being patented by osmosis, which is what my parents did.

I'll out story you. My Dad was stunned to hear I as a middle child had to take out loans to pay for my public college. He paid full freight for my sibling's private university tuition, just somehow forgot to help pay for my college.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a middle child who was overlooked. Example: when I stated middle school, the school was twice as far to walk as my elementary school. My dad told me to ride my bike. I pointed out I did not have a bike. He was surprised to learn this. I explained I’d never had a bike and did not actually know how to ride one. “How could you not know how to ride a bike?! You’re 11!” But… no one had ever bothered to try to teach me, plus I had no bike to ride.

My childhood is full of stories like this. So I would make sure you don’t just assume your middle child is being patented by osmosis, which is what my parents did.