It's Middle Child Day but don't presume anyone will care about that, either

Here's your chance to (maybe) feel slightly less invisible...for a change. 

If you're a middle child, your day (singular) has finally arrived.

It's not a day for the golden first-born, or the spoilt 'baby' in the family.

It's finally a day for all 'invisible' children who've experienced the harsh misfortune of being born in the middle; destined forever to be ignored.

Well, that's how they feel, anyway, apparently; I guess we'd know more about how they feel if we listened to them.

Jan Brady - this day is for you.

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RELATED: 5 ways to spot a middle child

Let us pause to respect Middle Child Day

So Middle Child Day is a celebration of all the kids born second or third, but who have younger siblings.

They are smack bang in the middle of the kids, and although their arrival causes the first born's feathers to be ruffled, things settle down after more babies appear and the middle child is neither the sensible first-born, nor any longer the cutest.

Parents seem to be generally indifferent to their plight, but middle children the world over have been complaining about being ignored and unappreciated since the dawn of social media.

So, on this one and only day of the year, it might be nice for us to pause to acknowledge the middle child's struggle.

(One Mississippi... two Mississippi. That's probably enough. We have other people to pay attention to.)

Image: iStock/BruceHopman

RELATED: I don’t want my youngest to become a middle child

"I've got his birthday wrong for two years"

People talk about Middle Child Syndrome, where a child can even feel outright neglect from their families.

Reassuringly (for negligent parents) Dr Justin Coulson told us a few years ago that environmental factors, siblings' personalities, and parenting, can be just as influential on a child as birth order.

So, mums and dads - it's not just your fault. 

We're not sure the same can be said for this mum, who has been celebrating her middle son's birthday on the wrong date for two years (and then laughed about it on the interwebs).

Or this sister, who accused all middle siblings of being "the craziest", in a highly divisive viral TikTok.

But at least they know they're not the only ones; a sense of belonging which the middle child will never know.

Originally published as It's Middle Child Day but don't presume anyone will care about that, either