Being The Middle Kid

As Andy Warhol said, "ones fun, twos a crowd, and threes a party," the same can be added when it comes to siblings, but in my case, maybe "threes fun, fours a crowd, and fives a party."

Growing up with siblings can definitely be a party. A crazy, hectic, farting in fans, food in hair, fighting over sinks to brush teeth, wondering who's t-shirt that is, kind of party.

As I've learned from growing up with siblings, though, sometimes it can be hard. So very hard. Hard like being promoted to oldest when your two older siblings move to college. Hard having to watch your baby brother grow up in a scary world, wanting to protect to him from all of the craziness in the world and public schools.

Being the middle kid isn't easy, believe me. You can read about the life of a middle kid all over the internet, how they are often overlooked or left out. There are even shirts about being the middle kid, "the eldest kid is the reason there are rules, the middle kid is the reason their enforced, and the rules don't apply to the baby." Being the middle of five can be different though as far as the odd man out. My older two siblings either hung out with each other or were old enough to go to their friends' homes down the street, then my younger two brothers would hang out together, and I was the odd man out.

But those articles won't show you the bright side of being the middle kid. Like being very close to your parents. And even though I may have been left out some as a kid, now that we are all older, we are so close. We have such a tight nit bond. There are almost enough of us to make up a volleyball team, but we can play 5 on 5 basketball on one team. We always have a full table when we are all home and when everyone is home, there is always loud laughter and good times.

So even though there are some downers to being a middle kid, there is always a bright side. There are almost always positives that go with the negatives, and without the negatives, you might not get the positives.