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Monday, March 25, 2013

Spending Time With The Middle Child


Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous.
But to an even greater degree than the sea,
it is terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity, or neglect.
– Anonymous

   The above quote seemed relevant in regards to how we deal with our middle children. We're figuring out our 'Lil Man at the moment. He's an active little guy. His mind is in constant need of some type of stimulation. When he gets the slightest bit bored, he becomes destructive and difficult. His sweet nature is countered by his inability to understand his own frustration. He's the middle child.

   Our 'Lil Miss is the pioneer. She's the first to do everything, gets photographed doing it, and excels at a lot. Our Wee Lass is our youngest, and being an infant, gets a large share of the attention. My 'Lil Man is stuck right in the middle. Being a middle child myself, I remember certain aspects of my place in line. I will, however, give my mother massive props for taking the time to give us all the specific attention we needed. See, I know several families that have 4 or more children. Some of them battle with being stretched thin to the point of children getting gypped on the their time with the folks. I feel like I can see it in the child's behavior, personality, etc.

   So we as couple have tried to make that a topic of ongoing discussion. How do we spend the time with each child so that they're all getting what they need from their parents? I know there could be discussion about the firstborn and the last born, but we're talking about middles right now. It might be time to evaluate how we're doing with our middle children. Do they get their fair share of the time, love, teaching, kudos, picture taking, etc.? Ask those questions and be ready for the answers, good or bad. I found an article called Middle Children and the Future of Work that highlights why we need to not underestimate our middle children. I'm sure no one has their middle child(ren) chained to a toilet in the basement. Let's just remember to take a peek at what we're doing once in a while. They're ours for life. No exceptions.

J.

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