Secret Power of Middle Children

I grew up oldest of two siblings and before my own children were born, my only knowledge of the middle child came from the TV series Malcolm in the Middle.

So I was quite surprised to hear that people view middle children as confused underachievers who are often overlooked by their parents (in the TV series, Malcolm was the genius of the siblings).

Thankfully, a new book by Catherine Salmon and Katrin Schumann set the record straight: there are actually a lot of benefits to being born in the middle. In this interview with NPR's Rebecca Robertsm, the authors explain:

Salmon: "If you grow up in a family and the firstborn tends to have a certain amount of authority that's given to them by the parents, and they're physically larger, they tend to get what they want or get their way through physical force or the authority parents have given them. While for the last-born, as anyone who's had to deal with a lot of last-borns often knows, they tend to whine to the parents or get very upset if they don't get their way. And so that's their particular strategy for working out what needs to be worked out.

"For the middle child, neither of those strategies are available. So they often get very good at negotiating, figuring out what the other person wants and needs, and then managing to get them what they want and what the middle child themselves want at the same time. And, of course, one of the things that middle children often want is peace and calm and quiet and for everybody to get along. And so those traits then serve them well when they leave the family and go on to form their own families, and in the workplace."

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/22/139854345/middle-children-secret-agents-of-change?ft=1&f=100


I've always felt pride in my middle child status. I've always been a great mediator. Maybe this is why. Or maybe it's about as true as all those generalized personality traits associated with astrological signs. A bunch of hooey. Who knows.
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MIDDLE CHILDREN UNITE! WE WILL RUN THIS PLACE. As a girl between two very high-tempered boys, I definitely learned a very useful set of skills. Now I'm a social worker. Go figure?
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That is soooooooo not my middle-child brother. He's loud, long-winded and obnoxious. Peace and quiet are two words that have been ripped out of his vocabulary.
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Psychology has about as much "real" science to it as Alchemy.

Pretty much any "study" can be biased to write whatever buzzword laden topic-of-the-day paper the author wants.

Salmon should have stuck to writing about erotic fiction - it's not any more scientific, but at least it's an interesting read.
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Not the biggest fan of psychiatrists, psychologists or therapists either. (Whatever you want to call them.)

Quick google: Depression drugs don’t work, finds data review.

And who prescribes all these drugs?

If I want help from another person, I don't want them to tell me: here take these drugs and everything will be just fine. Not only do I not want that, it's also proven that the drugs don't even work. FAIL. So wtf are these people good for? (Making money for themselves?)
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Psychology is a budding science and has already made great strides in unlocking the human mind. Which is more than I can say for quack cult leaders (LRH) and anonymous blog commenters bashing the science.
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