WHAT YOUR BIRTH ORDER REALLY REVEALS ABOUT YOU
88 | June• 2019
MIDDLE CHILDREN
ARE CREATIVE
“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” Every-
one remembers Jan Brady’s classic
middle-child c ry onThe B rady Bunch.
And i t does seem that the stereotype
is often true.
“The parents are very busy with
the older child, who is either going
on their first sleepover or starting
high school or going on their first
date,” says Wallace. “And the young-
er child needs so much help, so the
middle child can really get lost in
t he s hu ffle.”
Because everything the middle
child is doing the eldest child has
done before, they may feel lost. “The
middle child doesn’t have a clear
identity,” says Wallace. Even so, the
constant companionship of siblings
could be the reason middle children
are less likely to be diagnosed with
emotional disorders, according to a
2013 study from Spain. And having
to find their own niche can often
lead the middle child to branch out
into other areas and become more
creative, w ithout the parental expec-
tations eldest children face.
“The middle child finds interest-
ing ways to get attention, so you
often g et a middle child who’s an
artist or a jokester,” says Wallace. If
you’re a middle child and think you
have middle child syndrome, think
again, middle children have many
hidden powers.
MIDDLE CHILDREN
ARE G OOD NEGOTIATORS
Children born in the middle often
end up playing the role of peace-
maker between their siblings, and
as such, also do well in leadership
roles. A surprising fact: 52 per cent
of US presidents, including Abraham
Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, were
middle kids, according to Katrin
Schumann, co-author ofThe Secret
Power of Middle Children.
“It is true that middle children are
squeezed, but they are great nego-
tiators and compromisers because
they have been called upon their
entire lives to do so,” says Campbell.
Their people skills were evidenced in
a s tudy showing middles do better
in g roup situations than oldest or
youngest children.
“The middle child tends to know
how to get along with people and
calm a situation down – they can un-
derstand things from both angles,”
says Wallace. They also tend to hold
fairness and justice in high esteem.
Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson
Mandela were both middle children.YOUNGEST CHILDREN
OFTEN BECOME
ENTREPRENEURS
We think of the baby of the family as
holding a special place in their par-
ents’ hearts, and while that may be
true, it’s not because their parents
give them more attention. In fact, PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES