5 Things Only Middle Children Will Understand

My name is Richard F Higgins Jr, I’m the second to the youngest out of eight children. Four girls and four boys. All the girls are older than us boys. I grew up wearing hand me downs also. As far as going to great lengths to be noticed, and still feeling unnoticed was really not an issue for me. What was an issue was the older siblings always got the front seat in the car or got to pick the better things growing up. I sometimes got away with something’s being the second to the youngest and named after my father, I was his favorite, but did feel like my youngest brother got away with everything, he being my mother’s favorite. I was the most observant child and learned from watching and avoiding the mistakes my siblings made. I got me out of alot of grounding and spankings. I also felt extremely lucky to having both older siblings and a younger sibling.

On the flip side, I am a father of eight children myself. Six boys and two girls. My oldest is a girl and my youngest girl is number six out of the eight. I have two grandsons and am sure I will have many more with having eight children.

Isobel.

I am the second of four I have an older sister and a younger brother three years younger and sister six years younger than me. My brother being the only boy was favored. My older sister was five years older from a previous marriage and had lived with our mother and her parents until mum remarried. They idolized her and she was very manipulative and very dishonest. The baby was the baby and spoilt rotten. I had to learn to find things I liked to do by myself I often felt as if I did not fit in. I did not enjoy the same things as the rest of my family. I moved away, married and returned to visit with my children so they got to know their relatives. Now we are all adults they don’t speak to me and I have no idea why, I discovered this only when I was totally and obviously avoided at a social event we were all at. Our mother is getting on and it really hurts her that she cannot celebrate anything with her four adult children. I live closest to her now and she lives independently still and I take care of her in areas she needs since my stepfather died, she remarried after my dad passed away. It is what it is! Mother will visit me or she will visit them. They all get together for family events and I only know after. My children have been well aware for a long time that they are not as important to their grandmother either. I was visiting my parents one time and a good friend of theirs came and they were unaware that they had another daughter! Out of sight/out of mind! That has happened a lot since.

I have three adult children with families of their own and they are all very close to each other and to me, especially wonderful since their dad passed away. I do recall a time when my middle child was very small expressed her delight to spend alone time with me when I had to take her to a larger town for a medical appointment and it was the first time in her life she had ever had me to herself! We spent a few night in a motel. I had not even realized this so after that, I made a point of her and I having one on one I did this consciously with all three of them. It is interesting my children have a boy and a girl each.

As the middle of three, I was always looking in from outside.

74 year old grandmother. Aug.5, 2015

I’m the 7th child of nine children, My parents always put a lot of responsibility on me from a teenage to my fifties, I heard there’s a saying about the 7th child? can you tell me what it is.

I’m the middle of 3 and also the only girl; didn’t wear hand me downs but big brothers definitely felt I was ‘different’.