People always talk about middle child syndrome. You know, when the middle child is the forgotten child? Apparently it’s a real thing and children experience it. The oldest child is known as the first-born. The youngest child is known as the baby. Nobody has a name for the middle child, except for well a middle child.

Whenever people ask me how many siblings I have and they find out I’m the middle child, they always give me sympathy. I’m not quite sure why they do. In fact, I’m no ordinary middle child.

I guess you could say that in my younger years, I was a typical middle child. I’ll be completely honest, as a child I was devious. I used to instigate fights between my sisters so I could run down to mom and dad for attention. Which is actually a “sign” of middle child syndrome. Although I used to put in all that work to start fights between my sisters, they somehow always seemed to be the ones to get the attention, not me! Middle Child Syndrome!

If you were to ask my parents about childhood stories, they really don’t have any for me. The one good story they tell is me running outside naked to go play with a neighbor. I mean, come on children ran outside naked at least once point in their life. I don’t get the cool stories. You know, Stories like shutting down Sea World, or banging my head against the ground when I didn’t get my way, or making a huge scene because I didn’t want to get out or a go-kart, or scaring my grandma because I escaped from my play-pin, or even scaring my parents into thinking I was drowning. My dog has better stories than me and he is a dog!!

In a sense, I guess you could say that as a child I was a typical middle child and experienced the middle child syndrome. However, now that is not the case.

Here we all are in our twenties. I am the favorite child. Everyone knows that when my parents are old and don’t know what is going on in the world that they will be living in my basement. Ask anyone in my family and they will surely tell you that I am the favorite child. When did this happen? Why did this happen?

My mother and I share the same passions. We share passions for athletic training and softball. She always pushed us to play softball, which was her main sport growing up. I was the only one of my sisters who enjoyed the sport. I played softball every summer from t-ball all the way through high school. I even got to go to Italy to play in a tournament. As far as athletic training, I really did not get into it until I was in high school. Now, I’m majoring in athletic training and always have cool information and stories to tell her. Hence why I am now her favorite child.

My father and I share a sense of humor. I’m pretty sure I was always my dad’s favorite child. He got to pick out my name, so that has to count for something. My dad and I just share this bond where we can sit and joke about something that is not even funny. We are so sassy towards each other and just understand each other. I love my dad! I feel as if I need to justify why I’m his child a little more, like I did with my mom, but I just can’t. We just have a special bond, and everybody knows it.

Not everyone will agree with me. Heck, my parents even deny that I’m their favorite child. My sisters say that I’m the favorite because I still live at home. While that may be true, everyone knows the real truth. I’m just not the typical middle child!