Middle Child Syndrome… it’s a real thing

When I fell pregnant with Jesse, we were over the moon with joy, I did wonder how it would affect my 2 older monkeys especially since Jesse was also to be a boy, I had wondered about middle child syndrome beforehand but in all honestly I did not feel it would be a big deal, Gabriel was always given a lot of love and attention in both households, even when his brother required much attention due to his disorders and school antics we still took the time to give him extra love and cuddles. 

Writing this 2 years later I can tell you that middle child syndrome is indeed a thing and it is something I feel every parent should be aware of should you go the way of having a third child.

Would I have gone for a 4^th knowing this would happen… I don’t think so but I would have liked to have read up more about the issues people and their middle children have experienced in order to have made a more informed decision, and I think as all 3 of mine are boys it has only accentuated Gabriel’s place as a middle child in our family.

Basically Gabriel has become the king of tantrum throwing and life is not fair saying, he is dramatic at the best of times will often storm off or at times will mimic baby like behavior in order to draw more attention his way, we have tried to make him understand that the kind of behavior drawn from this behavior is negative but unfortunately there seems to be no reasoning with him at the best of times.

Socially he is very easy going and makes friends very easily however I can understand that with all that has happened with Loghan and him needing much extra attention at times and with Jesse being the baby it must be really tough for him and because I was from a family of 2 kids a pigeon pair, as was my hubby and my ex is one of 4, his wife 1 of 2, honestly I think my ex probably has the best understand as he has 2 brothers as well but to be honest I think we are all a bit lost at times with this monkey of ours.

He is a dreamer, he does live in his own world for much of the time and is quite happy to play on his own which makes it easy to leave him to do it and focus on Loghan for instance who cannot do a thing on his own at all.

We have all tried to incorporate more one on one time with him, but I can honestly say that in our family this is a very real thing, I would love to hear whether anyone else has experienced the same thing in their family or whether this has influenced wanting a 3^rd or more children in your family?

My ex will be bringing home another baby brother come June and it does worry me that this may cause Gabriel to go even further with his antics, for now we can only try our best to incorporate him into decisions and activities as best we can, I do try and take them out individually as much as I can to get some one on one time with them but it’s tough I’m not going to lie, as a mum it does make me feel a little sad and does often make me question whether we should have had another or if there is anything we are doing or shouldn’t be doing in order to ensure he has all the love and attention he needs, all we can do is try our best and make sure we tell him as often as possible how loved and just what an amazing child he is and how much he means to our entire family!