Kids caught in middle of a dilemma
The latest data on babies shows that the average birth rate for women is less than two, meaning middle children are becoming rarer, reveals
MIDDLE children have long complained they do not receive the attention they feel they deserve.
That the lack of attention has just stepped up a notch — Australians have simply stopped having them.
Just like with any other species, there are some concerns about the possible extinction of the middle child even though most of the disquiet — some would say whingeing — appears to be coming from attention-deprived middle children themselves.
According to United Nations data, a predicted Covid-19 baby boom has failed to deliver an uptick in the number of middle children.
In 1960, Australian women on average gave birth to 3.353 children.
Fast-forward to 2021 and the average birth rate for Aussie women has plummeted to 1.803 babies — including a decline from 1.813 children in 2020 — to all but wipe out a fresh supply of the species known as middle children, or middlers.
Demographically speaking, the ideal number of children in the Australian family has shrunk from three to two — an oldest and a youngest, with nothing caught in the middle.
At first glance, the potential extinction of the middlers may not seem like a big deal.
Hamstrung by what is known as “middle child syndrome”, those in the middle are often believed to be growing up resenting the unequal attention given by their parents to their younger and older siblings.
This resentment is thought to have given rise to various personality flaws in adulthood, including having little or no drive, possessing a negative outlook on life, and engaging in negative attention-seeking behaviours during childhood.
Perhaps worse, some believe that middle children grow up feeling lonely, neglected and bitter because of their birth order.
Yet there is much to love about middle children. Middleness is actually a strength, not a weakness.
Middle children are less demanding than the last born and do not have the attitude and arrogance of the eldest. In adulthood, they rarely have huge egos.
Middlers have had to become skilled at mediation and negotiation to deal with challenges from both above and below them –– attributes that serve them well in adulthood.
Unsurprisingly, given the multiple injustices endured growing up as their parents played favourites with siblings either side, middlers as adults have become focused on fairness and equality.
In fact, after feeling overshadowed as a child, a middling as an adult will always relate to an underdog, highlighting the fact they are indeed great empathisers.
Above all, middle children end up being resilient.
Perhaps it is time for you to give some positive press to us middle children.
Yes, I am a middle child. I do not crave attention, am far from resentful, do not have a victim mentality and do not feel like I am stuck in the shadow of my older sister or younger brother.
Yet it is a little unnerving to discover I am part of a dying breed — and one that has been unfairly typecast.
We actually need more middle children, not fewer — and not just because of their amazing attributes.
With an ageing population and a shortage of people to continue to build the nation, producing fewer middle children is a recipe for ongoing economic uncertainty.