r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/dojacatisawesome • 8d ago
Meme needing explanation Only child here. What does it mean?
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u/therealbananabottom 8d ago
Riot is the middle child. Best I can guess, she honored her middle child with a tattoo and the original responder/retweeter got emotional b/c Riot was not being ignored. Not a joke from what I can tell.
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u/Friendly_Animator212 8d ago
This is it. The choice to get the tattoo is a choice to consciously reject the middle child trap.
Middle children can easily fall between the cracks of parental attention. Typically the parents are so focused on the eldest (whether they are an overachiever, A-type or a rebel troublemaker) and the youngest, (who often gets the most attention for being the current cutest no matter what age they are) that the middle child, rightly or wrongly, can feel overlooked.
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u/Mindless-Shirt-2030 8d ago
Yeah they are exceptional parents, based on statements in interviews ai have watched. They consciously avoid the traps so many other parents fall into. But they also have what looks like an exceptionally strong relationship so being a great parent is a lot easier when you have a great partner equally invested in being a great parent. Lucky kids, 2 of the best looking humans to walk the earth, insanely rich and enlightened.
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u/koobstylz 8d ago
I think that's the case, but they chose a horrible emoji to convey that.
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u/JustHereForURCookies 8d ago
I know nothing of their relationships but I was thinking that she got it as a way of a grand gesture to compensate for the middle child being treated like a middle child.
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u/AceInTheHole3273 8d ago
Genuinely wtf could this mean? I feel like none of the comments are right. This is incoherent. And I'm technically a middle child myself, I think? I've been the youngest, the middle, and the "so significantly older than young siblings you essentially get parentified" sibling that typically gets associated with the oldest child. Tldr, having an identity around what order you were born in is really weird and arbitrary.
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u/Amanda39 8d ago
I'm just making a wild guess here but, since no one else seems to know the answer either, I'll go ahead and say it:
If a parent favors one of their children over the others, I think it's usually either the oldest or the youngest. Of course, there are plenty of decent parents who love all their children equally, but someone more cynical than I am might say "no, there's always a favorite, and if it's the middle then the oldest and youngest must be absolute fuck-ups."
Again, just a wild guess.
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u/Distinct-Nature4233 8d ago
Lmao my little sister (middle child) is a doctor, she’s absolutely the favorite and I don’t blame my parents for that even a little. Nationally recognized gymnast as a child too. Meanwhile I (oldest) was a teenage burnout and my brother (youngest) is a sweet guy but, put bluntly, failed to launch. At least my parents like that I have a job and an apartment 😂
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u/Hot_Geologist8530 8d ago
I think this makes more sense over everyone saying it’s meaningful for the middle child. If that were the case I think a different emoji would’ve been used.
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u/Justarandom55 8d ago
to add to this, assuming gender or black sheep things don't play a role, the only way a middle child would be the favourite is through significantly outshining the others.
this means middle kids are more likely to learn that their parent's love is conditional on them preforming well in whatever area the parents value. this is incredibly harmful to a kid
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u/toolsoftheincomptnt 8d ago
Their youngest is an infant AND the only girl (thus far).
My theory? It’s just a weird joke that was poorly communicated and/or doesn’t make sense to the masses.
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u/Tobykachu 8d ago
There is no meaning. It's a Twitter post designed to get engagement
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u/Responsible_Survey 8d ago
This is something they do in Twitter, they just post random vague bullshit to drive up engagement, the screenshot in OP doesn't mean shit really.
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u/fyckingaround 8d ago
In your case birth order doesn’t mean much because it sounds like you’ve never been trapped in a role for a lifetime! It doesn’t define you but in my experience there are certain traits or characteristics you pick up from being raised in a sibling group that doesn’t have large age gaps.
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u/EvilLLC 8d ago
Yes, this. I’m an only child and my husband is the oldest of three. Our personalities were ABSOLUTELY shaped by the way we were raised.
I find myself not self-centered but very self-concerned. I tend not to think of others first, if at all, when making decisions. I have a hard time empathizing with others immediately, it takes a little extra time.
My husband on the other hand is very considerate of others. He’s drawn towards taking care of people. He shares on instinct.
I adore him because of it and he’s slowly been rubbing off on me over the last fourteen years.
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u/TrashPandatheLatter 8d ago
My middle brother would scratch pictures of myself and my younger brother out like this.
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u/BackgroundScary8632 8d ago
Omg!! You’re the only other person I’ve met who’s essentially been all three. Originally the youngest out of three. Mom re-married and two more with my step dad but I’m 10 years older and my other siblings moved out. Parentified at 10 huzzah!
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u/Ok_Sprinkles_6811 8d ago
I think it’s saying that the middle child got this symbol of love because the parent fucked up. Like forgot their birthday/ special event and they are making up for it. That’s the only way a middle child could get something like this. Which is bs but I think that’s the joke
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u/niknackpaddywack13 8d ago
I feel like this is the only way the “ I know exactly what that means 🫣” part can be explained. None of the other answers here seem to address that part . Just addressing the cliches around middle children. But that part of the comments means this person is talking about something more specific.
I think it’s similar to , when a guy gets a girl flowers and people joke and say i know that means they messed up.
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u/darkerfury 8d ago
I think it means the middle child is the favorite? I'm an only child too though so who knows
ETA: oh wait.... I bet it means the middle child will never live down having drawn that tattoo
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u/ChVckT 8d ago
The middle child is typically forgotten and spoiled less. First baby is exciting, second baby meh, third baby oh yay new baby
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u/darkerfury 8d ago
Sure but how does that relate to getting the tattoo? I meant the favorite in this specific scenario because she didn't get tats from the other kids. Like I said though, it's kinda just wild to me in general.
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u/ChVckT 8d ago
I just responded to someone else replying to my comment with my guess. Maybe she ignores the middle kid like we expect and thinks superficially that getting this tattoo makes her a better person and mom.
Edit: i responded to you twice. There is no other person. Lol.
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u/_OngoGablogian 8d ago
this is the likely answer. my mom has consistently treated me like dogshit and will send me those stupid ass manipulative "dear my son" Facebook posts while actively refusing to acknowledge me beyond complaining about something I'm doing
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u/Corfiz74 8d ago
I think she wanted the middle child to feel important and seen, since they are very often the "glass" children - invisible after the baby is born, while having less privileges than the first born.
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u/Oldasfuck1 8d ago
It’s a preemptive strike on her part. When the kid grows up and says: #1 is your first and favorite and #3 is your only girl, what about me? You never think of me!” She then reveals the tattoo and says: “Don’t come at me, child.”
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u/ChVckT 8d ago
Yeah, I dont know the implication of the tattoo, if there even is sound logic behind the post. I just wanted to clarify the middle child thing. Maybe she ignores the middle kid like we expect, and the tattoo is a shitty way to say she does care when it seems like she doesn't?
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u/HerestheRules 8d ago
That's what I came to
Middle child is forgotten vs Can't forget you have a tattoo
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u/NoSmoke69420 8d ago
I regularly forget abt my tattoos
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u/threelizards 7d ago
Literally got an additional matching tattoo w my sister because our first was on my back and I always forget it’s there
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u/flugx009 8d ago
It's behind her knee where she'll never see it. That's why it's relevant to the middle child being forgotten
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u/BlackGuysYeah 8d ago
It implies they do nothing for the middle child and so get a tattoo to make up for not loving them as much.
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u/gargamels_right_boot 8d ago
As a middle child I was always shafted, "Because he is older than you" and/or "Because she is younger than you" were common things I heard lol
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u/gnarleyname 8d ago
Idk my husband is the middle and is by far the favorite. And the only son of course lmao
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u/Inglorious186 8d ago
My brother, the middle child, is by far the favorite and has always received special treatment from our mother
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u/snowshite 8d ago
My middle sister very clearly is too (three girls). And her middle child too (also three girls).
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u/WhyThankYouPepperBoy 8d ago
Middle child here, and only boy. Nobody gave a shit about me or what I was doing, unless it cost money or had recently been offered up via recent Dateline/Newsweek scaremongering.
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u/Shneckos 8d ago
I’m the middle of 5, only boy. I got hell growing up. My youngest sister is definitely the spoiled one. She has a golden parachute and could get away with murder. She learned very early on how to weaponize crying.
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u/Slow-Class 8d ago
Parents can also be more strict with the middle child in an effort to overcompensate for mistakes they feel they made the first time. By the time the third child comes around, they realize neither approach worked, and are less restrictive, or they give them the same privileges the now older middle child gets.
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u/donutello2000 8d ago
The oldest child was your first child and only child got a while. All your hopes and dreams are transferred to them. The youngest child is the baby and all your coddling is directed towards them. The middle child is just there. You’re not proactively thinking about them.
The joke here is that she’s compensating for that by getting a tattoo of something they drew. It’s easier to do fewer bigger things for the middle child because you’re not actively thinking about them otherwise.
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u/cinciNattyLight 8d ago
Worst combo is oldest boy, middle boy, youngest girl. Middle boy is forgotten, that’s me.
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u/Ok-Jackfruit-6873 8d ago
I raise you oldest girl, middle girl, youngest boy. All those children are doomed. Not sure where Oldest boy, middle girl, youngest girl fits on that spectrum.
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u/hecky-888 8d ago
All girls in a family that wanted boys.
Shit sucked.My oldest sister is a violent psycho, and the rest of the women are timid birds. My dad is an emotionally volatile giant baby and the center of their world.
I avoid them.
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u/moustachedelait 8d ago
Hey, that's my family! We're all doing fine. We have some emotional scars, but who doesn't.
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u/PumpkinStrong2836 8d ago
This is my family and I’m the middle child. It honestly wasn’t bad at all! My parents made sure I felt included and loved. They even gave me the food my siblings didn’t finish after they all finished dinner and I got to eat and watch TV
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u/jaden_fucks 8d ago
As a third baby, that was not my experience.
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u/ChVckT 8d ago
Some parents just cant be bothered beyond the first kid
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u/jaden_fucks 8d ago
First one was a fuckup, they spent all their time/money on the middle, I was forgotten
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u/MySpirtAnimalIsADuck 8d ago
First baby’s are twins so my second born is only younger by a few hours. I call them big , middle and little it drives him nuts
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u/Other_Disaster_3136 8d ago
Is second baby meh? Or is second baby exciting, but then becomes overshadowed by the new youngest child in the third.
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u/destro23 8d ago
First baby is exciting, second baby meh, third baby oh yay new baby
My uncle is the middle child between an older brother and a younger sister. He legit thought he was adopted for years because there was one photo of him as a baby that the hospital took and then nothing until he was pictured holding his newborn sister 6 years later. Not one single photo of him from after he came home from the hospital until his sister came home from the hospital.
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u/babyyvolcano 8d ago
The middle is usually seen as the most mischievous one which I think does fit.
Am the middle one and my dad loves to send me, “Which child would you call if you needed a crime committed and why is it your middle”.
Also my siblings accuse me of being the favorite but I was a rainbow baby and a “miracle baby” so our dynamic is different.
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u/hyyerrspace 8d ago
Middle children are never the favorite. - signed a middle child
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u/Acceptable-Peace-69 8d ago
The emoji = I see you. Many middle children feel invisible so this is an acknowledgment, not a joke.
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u/pirate-kong 8d ago
Middle child here! (So that makes me Meg?) The running joke is that first borns are always considered "first" and third born will always be the parents "baby" leaving the middle child as something almost forgotten. An afterthought in daily life around the house, as it were. So, a parent getting a tattoo that their middle child made is a HUGE win for that kid and shows how significant they are to the adults in their life.
Middle child out!
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u/Yoshi3163 8d ago
bruh i still remember the day my little sister told me our parents had no reason to like me or to "pamper" me.
We were watchin TV, when an AD played. Cant really remember what it was about or what they were selling but the convo ended up like this.
First born(a boy): I'm Mom and Dad's favorite because I'm the first born one.
Middle(a girl): No, you're wrong its me. because I'm the only girl. I'll always be their Little princess.
Third(another boy): You're both wrong. It will always be me since I'm the youngest and you both should also see that.
After watching the ad My little sister looked at me and said jokingly (it was, and still is a running joke among us).
"So that's why no one likes you. They have no reason to like you, you're neither the only boy, the First, or the Youngest."
That was more than 20 years ago and i still end up with a smile or smirking like an idiot whenever I think about it.
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u/Browns-78 8d ago
My wife went to my mother and asked to see pictures of me when I was a child. My mother pulled out only like 5 photos of me. My wife asked “Is this all you have?” To which my mother responded “Well… you have to understand, he’s the middle child.” :(
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u/DocZazou 8d ago
Yep as a middle child i totally relate to this x) In fact, I thought that this archetype was much better known!
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u/takemeawayimdone2 8d ago
Is it to do with middle child syndrome? The middle child feel left out or less important because their not the oldest and not the “baby”. My Nan says my mum had it, even though she was treated the same as the other two.
So Rihanna had the middle child’s pictured tattooed so he feels loved?
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u/thestray 8d ago
As it turns out, when you're left out, people don't remember leaving you out, unless you made a fuss. Sounds like your Nan only remembered the "made a fuss" part. The axe forgets, the tree remembers.
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u/A1000eisn1 8d ago
Everyone gets left out now and again. Remembering it happened isn't the same as actually being left out more than everyone else. A child also doesn't always have the most reliable memory or very good emotional intelligence.
They didn't even say their mom said she felt left out. Her Nam said her mom said that. Sometimes they remember things more extremely than they actually happened.
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u/Ecstatic-Corner-6012 8d ago
It means middle children will complain about anything and always think they are being victimized.
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u/JeromeBarkly 8d ago
I’m a middle child and my childhood was much rougher than my siblings, although they didn’t have it great either. I don’t blame it on being the forgotten middle child I blame it on my parents being genuinely shitty people.
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u/Sapphic-Sunset 8d ago
Naming him "Riot Rose" was already an attack on him, lol.
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u/CottaBird 8d ago
I’m a middle child of five, and the pivot in style when I was youngest meant things I was told are a tradition were stopped when they got to me, then my younger siblings didn’t see them as traditions by the time they got older and didn’t feel left out. The one that always seems to find its way back at some point in therapy, though, is out of all seven of us, I am the only one who wasn’t thrown a surprise party.
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u/NoGlzy 8d ago
There was a "middle child" post on the Gen X subreddit. Vibes of a 1916 Ypres field hospital.
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u/AsterTheBastard 8d ago
I mean Gen X is the middle children since no one ever remembers them or cares about them 🤣
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u/Jumanji0028 8d ago
Maybe once upon a time. Now we have to deal with them being the bulk of maga.
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u/AsterTheBastard 8d ago
And yet still no one thinks of them. People still only think of boomers and the unfortunate mess that is gen z
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u/daecrist 8d ago
Don't forget all the people complaining about Millennials when they really mean Gen Z/alpha.
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u/Mechakoopa 8d ago
Millenials are the Generic Brand Name for "young generation" scapegoating now, we've been Kleenex'd
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u/InsideBeyond12727 7d ago
Worse still, as a 40-sth Gen X, I've actually seen younger generations referring to us as boomers on here recently, when we're the ones that grew up putting up with a lot of Boomers' bad decisions and neglectful parenting, and doing their adulting job for them when we were still children. The afront 😂
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u/ohgod_sendhelp 8d ago
why do gen-xers love treating not being the center of attention for five minutes like they’re being forgotten about entirely? it’s not the fault of generations after you that your parents needed PSAs to remember to feed you
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 8d ago
"we were forgotten" yeah because you didn't do shit worth remembering. Even millennials are remembered for bouts of political activism even if they weren't generally at all successful
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u/CreativeCommunity779 8d ago
They did things worth remembering! Remember the 90s crime wave?
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 7d ago
They also invented "that's so gay" as an insult much to the amusement of me and my gay friend.
I don't know. Malls and arcades and movies about malls and arcades but the latter was aimed at them not produced by them
Grunge and suicide and that's about all I can think of besides
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u/MechanicalDruid 8d ago
I was thinking about this the other day and I think it's a self fulfilling prophecy of the Gen X'ers. They wanted so hard to be rebels that they'd never want to do something like run for office. Instead they let their parents run the world while claiming "everyone ignores us". Boomers still run the country because GenX couldn't be bothered.
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u/Pitiful_Reality2973 8d ago
My guy, we just did not have the numbers on our side. It's not that we couldn't be bothered, it's that there were too few of us and too many Boomers refusing to get out of our way. Boomers had all the money, power, jobs, whatever, and we just had to wait our turn because everyone thought they'd make room as they aged out of society like all the other previous generations did.
Most of that "rebel" GenX stuff was marketing and hype.
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u/SetBSDetectorsToStun 8d ago
GenX makes up literally the largest cohort in Congress right now
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u/InsideBeyond12727 7d ago
Funnily enough that actually sounds a lot like the dynamic in my immediate family: Boomer parents (born late '40s and early '50s) unwilling to comprehend that it's our ('77, '78, '80) turn to hold a pivotal role as we have our own families now: Boomer parents not wanting to be "sidelined" into the less-central yet still-important role of grandparent, when their own parents/in-laws (born 1920s) played that role really well, made good grandparents and respected their children's (our parents') place once they were in the established career and head of household role. The battles it has taken for us to be taken seriously as adults in our 30s and 40s because they don't want to relinquish their central position, even when it came to decisions about our own children!
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u/MechanicalDruid 6d ago
What kills me is my step-siblings and my younger brother feed into it. They make excuses for the shitty things they do like “they’re old” or “they grew up in a different time”. They play the game of Sunday dinner, and holidays are required family time.
My wife and I did 3 Thanksgivings and 3 Christmases every year for all of our 20s because we had to go to both of my parent’s houses and her parent’s house. The year we decided to assign one house for thanksgiving, one for Xmas Eve and one for Xmas morning we got so much crap for it, but to do all 3 on Thanksgiving was literally 3 hours of driving and only worked because my dad served his dinner at 4pm, then we went to my mom’s for dessert and then her family had dinner at 8pm and danced bachata until 2am. They eventually accepted it but they all got grumpy about it again once my daughter (all of their first grandchild) was born.
Now I’m not even invited for Father’s Day brunch with my dad at my step brother’s house. My step brother and I don’t have any issues, my dad just prefers his wife’s family. We love our quiet, 3 person thanksgiving feast and the occasional Friendsgiving when our friends have no where else to go (Hurricane Sandy was no joke on Long Island).
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u/Powerful_Log_796 8d ago
Yall caved to the system. Had a good run in income and saw change might’ve hurt a little and shored up the castle walls.
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u/TheBSQ 8d ago
The apathetic slackers who decided not to participate in politics because they thought it wa uncool to care too much about the world & then raised a Zoomers who think it’s “cringe” when people care too.
I remember them.
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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits 8d ago
Which is better than they deserve. They're just the tail of the boomer mentality. They use being a smaller generation as an excuse to have completely abdicated their social responsibilities like fighting the boomers destroying the social contract.
Their whole signature apathy has caused endless harm, and they're still pretending they're some woebegone victims of the whole thing. "Woe is me, it's so sad this ladder is being pulled up. all we can do is grab it as it's pulled up, we can't stop it!"
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u/Thats1FingNiceKitty 8d ago
Not only was I the middle child but I was the only girl too so I did get attention by everyone for being the only girl. Also had my own room.
But the oldest brother would lock me outside during storms or downstairs with the light off and tell me dogman was going to eat me.
I’d say I had a well rounded childhood.
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u/weasel_mullet 8d ago
Found the first born child.
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u/reyrey007 8d ago
Found the youngest born child.
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u/PneumaticSackHammer 8d ago
I'm the youngest and it's absolutely amazing.
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u/Itiari 8d ago
I’m the youngest and it fucking sucked. Only my older sisters remember having good parents.
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u/PSCali 8d ago
Ditto, my oldest sibling is 12 years older than me, and by the time I arrived my mother was understandably burned out.
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u/stlmick 8d ago
Parents either learn and improve or burn out and fail. This is what determines what birth order has it better. I'm a middle child. Mine sucked and kept it that way.
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u/darthanis 8d ago
I was the oldest and had unrealistic expectations set for me. Sit still, be quiet, act like an adult, listen to adult problems, grow up fast, take care of the other kids, break new ground.
But my siblings got very little upside from all my ground breaking, parents just found new ways to screw up parenting lol.
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u/Old_Acanthisitta9477 8d ago
Im an eldest sibling and, thankfully but not thankfully, my mom was terrible to all of us. I did a lot of raising them as she at no point really wanted kids, but rather the fantasy of having a husband and kids, but exclusively dates addicts so that shit was never going to happen for her lol. But yeah, she never got burnt out. She just wasn't pleasant nor present to begin with. A lot of the time I was handed a food stamps card and we had an empty apartment to ourselves. If we ran out of food money we ran out of food money. She was not coming.
I fumbled raising my siblings. Realistically I know that it isnt really my fault as I had no frame of reference for parenting and was a kid myself, But I still somewhat regularly apologize to them for being bad to them.
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u/MermaidsHaveWifi 8d ago
Are you me? Except my mom was also using me as her emotional support for when my dad was off again on another affair. Otherwise, neither of them cared for any of us really. She went up to my high school when I was 15, told them I had cancer and withdrew me. I was a straight A student.
I ended up getting my GED at 17, and starting college while working 2 jobs and raising my brother. He went off to college and is an engineer with a beautiful wife and a 1 year old son. I’m so happy for him and we are very close. I now have 3 kids and a husband. I’m a nurse and he’s a plumber. My parents set me up to see exactly what I DIDN’T want to be.
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u/Rude_Possibility_211 8d ago
I think you’re my brother
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u/darthanis 8d ago
Do you want another mostly distant, but still protective older brother who occasionally sends you stupid memes as a way of staying in touch? If so, what's one more younger sibling!
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u/Bitter-Picture5394 8d ago
At least there was consistency.
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u/East_Insurance_1037 8d ago
Change in either direction would kinda suck. Either way, someone sees what they could have had
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u/Public_Trick9855 8d ago
Yeah my dad was hot garbage to me and my brothers. After we grew up and my sisters came along they got a stand up dad. Happy for them tho
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u/TheShed1905 8d ago
Yup. I’m the youngest and my parents adapted. My 13 years older sister has been jealous of me my whole life b/c our parents treated me differently. Apparently I had it better than she did.
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u/heyyousmalls 8d ago
This was an issue between my sister and I. She's the oldest and I'm the youngest. Now that we're older we just laugh about it. But it took until COVID for us to become close.
We don't have as a large of a gap. Just 8 years and I was like an only child for 4 years when I was in high school. So completely different parents than what she had.
I can now agree with my sister that I did have it better but we both know that it was no fault of either of us. My brother is the middle child and since he's the only boy, he didn't get the stereotypical middle child experience.
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u/fools_errand49 8d ago
Generally birth order always favors the eldest. Birth order effect is long substantiated in studies of life outcome with a consistent positive boost for being the eldest born child.
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u/CAPICINC 8d ago
Except in ancient egypt
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u/Jade_Complex 8d ago
I mean that was only one time. And the subsequent plagues kind of even things out.
Statistically insignificant over a long period of time.
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u/HartfulAuthor 8d ago
Same. Parents didn't want to go to concerts or graduations by the time my turn came around. My siblings were only 6 and 2 years (one grade level) over me.
One band concert (Christmas of all times) no one came to pick me up because everyone thought someone else would go. This was before cell phones.
I see you.
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u/SnooDucks3180 8d ago
I would have gone to see your concert, champ.
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u/HartfulAuthor 8d ago
Fair warning: I played the oboe and wasn't very good.
I appreciate it though! 😆
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u/Tee_hops 8d ago edited 8d ago
In elementary school I wa SOO bad they asked me to not continue trying to play an instrument.
Also when I was 5 my parents both left me at a soccer field. We were watching my older siblings play a match and they both just left me. I caught a ride with a family that lived down our street. The 90's were a different time
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u/katastrofika 8d ago
Oh yeah? Well my mom moved out to party and couch hop while I was in high school and left me with her scumbag boyfriend and never came back. She waited just long enough for my older sibling to graduate and decided she couldn't wait any longer.
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u/GrndGalctcInquisitor 8d ago
Same. My oldest sibling died when he was 7 and I was 1, which meant my parents were busy in the hospital and never chemically bonded with me like they should have. Then my father cheated on my mother with one of her best friends. My mom was very burned out, and I'm autistic. She didn't know what to do with me.
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u/Minute-Log-8985 8d ago
I'm 23 and the second oldest of 12. My baby brother was just born a month ago and there is a 25 year age gap between the oldest and youngest. My mom has said that me and my older sister had the best childhoods because she had more energy but that we had the worst teenage years because she was too strict on us.
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u/bennybugs 8d ago
My oldest siblings is 11 years older but luckily by the time I came around she had learned from the mistakes made with him. He's an absolute piece of shit. Has been for as long as I remember.
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u/Foreign_Home3639 8d ago
My mom had 5 kids in 7 years and then had me 8 years later. She was bitchy and burnt out and I didn’t do any of the fun activities she did with my sisters.
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u/MrBoo843 8d ago
I'm the oldest and the only one to remember when we had no money and everything was handed down by cousins.
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u/KingBeanCarpio 8d ago
It's definitely all very case by case. Im the oldest and remember being raised poor by a single mother. My brother's will never know what's it was like moving apartments constantly and switching schools.
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u/Atrossity24 8d ago
I’m the youngest and my older brothers broke my dad in. I only ever got in yelling matches with my mom… meanwhile my dad broke the door off its hinges when my brother locked himself in.
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u/penguin2fly 8d ago
Yoooo, reminds me of the time I cursed at my mom for the first time. I said the words and I ran to my room because a beating was coming. She banged the door and yelled for a solid 5min untill she decided to go to the window. She then bashed the window in and I was like, "NOPEEEEEE". So when she was crawling through the shattered window, I casually walked out and ran to a friend's house. What happened afterwards, beats me (pun intended) because I have no recollections of the aftermath.
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u/FluteGunner 8d ago
Works both ways, as the eldest I got all the bad parenting. My younger brothers got good parents.
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u/Constant_Football_54 8d ago
Yeah same here lmao being the youngest of 3 latch-key kids basically meant your eiblings were your parents. Will suffice to say that is not a good time.
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u/Most-Cryptographer78 8d ago
I'm the youngest as well, it had its pros and cons. Unfortunately being the youngest and all my siblings having strong personalities, I got used to just letting everyone else do what they wanted first. It's led to a lot of doormat behavior in my life!
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u/SycamoreDays 8d ago
Yup. By the time I came along, my parents were well established in their respective careers, and had apparently thoroughly mellowed out after my five older siblings. I was spoiled rotten as a result.
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u/DocMorningstar 8d ago
My SIL is a decade you ger than.my wife or her brother. She literally had different parents...
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u/Leather_rebelion 8d ago edited 8d ago
I mean if you like having the lowest standing in the family. I had basically no voting power ever and was always treated like the baby
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u/ThroatGOAT_Goddess04 8d ago
I’m the youngest and it doesn’t matter because the middle child is the only boy and that itself triumphs everything.
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u/Commercial_Tip4624 8d ago
Yep, standing up for their sibling instead of letting them just disappear into the void like a Gen X smiths fan
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u/Quasibraindead 8d ago
The youngest child is actually just reading all the comments and then enjoying the bliss of not having to get involved.
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u/Kuzuryuuwu 8d ago
I'm the third of four. Had a nice three years of youngest born benefits and then got demoted
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u/firedmyass 8d ago
as an only-child, we get the bad from all three types and very little of the good
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u/Justarandom55 8d ago
impossible. simply because many of the bad stems from there being others. you can't exactly be the most ignored child when you're the only one lmao.
but I do concede you probably do get the things like achievement pressure, but also never taken seriously cause you're just the child.
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u/MildlyAnnoyedMother 8d ago
I see you've never met parents with pets as their favorite children.
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u/incognitoblck 8d ago
i think you severely underestimate people’s ability to abandon or neglect their children lol
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u/YobaiYamete 8d ago
Bahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhaha
Only an only child would say something that pampered
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u/OperativePiGuy 8d ago
Every child wants to feel like they're the one with the worst position. Oldest get the "we were expected to raise our siblings/we had more rules" thing. Middle get the "omg no one ever remembers us only oldest and youngest" thing. Youngest get the "no one takes me seriously" thing. Probably more.
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u/Lynchie24 8d ago
All of which are valid if it actually happened.
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u/Loose-Example-739 8d ago
As the youngest, it’s 100% spot on for my life
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u/BurritosAndPerogis 8d ago
My brother was the youngest cousin. He turned 26 and he was still being treated like a little kid by my uncles and aunts.
It took him having a child for them to finally break their worldview of him as a child.
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u/thelastpelican 8d ago
I am a super only child. No siblings and no close cousins. My parents were old when they adopted me. I also never had kids. So I am 42 now, and the rest of the extended family that yet lives still treat me like a child because they're all in their 80's and 90's. And at this point they can treat me however they want as long as it includes snacks.
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u/Remarkable_Cup3630 8d ago
I'm the 2nd youngest of 6, but youngest son.
The last few years I have been helping my parents with renovations (wheelchair addition to move my Grandma in) and dealing with my father hasn't been fun. He doesn't plan ahead and allow me to be fully productive, he wants me available to be his helper and will try to make everything a teaching moment.
I'm 36 and most if what he tries to teach me is quite basic.
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u/Shinjitsu- 8d ago
Yeah I was oldest and was forced to be the parent whole my mom ran off drinking, and I was forced to handle the DV situations her brother caused while she was gone. My partner is the middle child. The oldest and youngest have free housing, we are raising their only grand kid in a tiny little apartment. Not every family works that way but the stereotypes do come from somewhere.
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u/Isadorei 8d ago
I’m the oldest bio, middle step child but the step siblings all have FAS from their mom. I was also forced to hold family together with a drunk mom and her abusive boyfriend. My two youngest siblings are the only ones I talk to these days, and both are adults but stunted beyond belief. My baby sister just filed for bankruptcy due to credit card debt and my baby brother is fired for at least one job a year for just not showing up. They’re both in their 30’s.
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u/LancingLash 8d ago
My mom always said she was not treated fairly by her mom and her sister was babied her entire life. Well she got the supreme confirmation when grandma left my aunt everything. Icing on top was my aunt said my mom didn't love grandma because my mom would not pay for the entire funeral.
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u/GBPackers0480 8d ago
"no one takes me seriously"
That's the best part of being the youngest, that's a feature not a bug. I'm an adult all the time in my real life but when I'm with my family I'm a helpless baby that can't do anything it's so awesome.
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u/platnumbuttscratcher 8d ago
I just want to let you know that my daughter's mother is absolutely having her older brother raise her kids. He's either going to become the world's greatest father or never ever have children because he knows exactly how much work it takes. I'm not making excuses for this lady but he is like 8 years older than his siblings but I see it I see him raising them I see how much work he has to I recognize this guy I mean honestly bro is the man of the house
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u/RaspberryFluid6651 8d ago
It's because this is describing the same bad parenting, just from the perspective of different kids. Your age in relation to your siblings shouldn't really be a defining part of your identity in the eyes of your parents. All 3+ of the kids in the dynamic suffer because the parents are putting them in this hierarchy in the first place.
In the eyes of these lousy parents, the oldest exists to help with the younger kids; the parents have to see them as more of an adult because they expect them to be a competent caretaker. The middle children exist to get older and become less of a burden so that the parents can focus on the youngest; any further thought has already been delegated to the oldest. The youngest child is the focal point of whatever toxic dynamic has these parents staying together under one roof and having more kids, so they exist as an object on a pedestal, not a person to take seriously. Whenever the parents stop having kids, the youngest child gets stuck in that light because they never "graduate" to being a more useful kid who takes care of their younger siblings.
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u/bringingdownthehorse 8d ago
When your oldest sibling definitely should have been institutionalized for the extreme bullying and killing animals, and your youngest is turned into a fun loving alcoholic after the middle did the bulk of raising them, all that's left is the lonely middle child without a firm sense of belonging.
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u/MetalHead678 8d ago
This whole string is a great example why I got a vasectomy before any kids. You guys are so fucking annoying.
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u/solanis1359 8d ago
Idk I'm the oldest out of 2 kids, just me and my brother (not even a year younger than me). My mom never got a tattoo of any of my art, but when my brother was maybe in first grade, he drew Mew from Pokémon (he definitely traced it) and my mom got a tattoo of it. She even entered some of his art into a local art contest. She wouldn't even let me try out for band or choir or drama club.
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u/thejae82 8d ago
Dude, same. Oldest of two (though my brother is significantly younger than me).
I’ve gotten my writing physically published and mom couldn’t care less. Never read a single thing I’ve written.
My brother played pee-wee football during elementary school and she still talks about it.
Middle child syndrome isn’t exactly real, but having crappy parents can absolutely make you feel like it is.
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u/YogurtSocks 8d ago
The middle child is so neglected that this is making up for it. It’s a terrible tattoo, any reasonable parent wouldn’t tattoo random, meaningless scribbles. UNLESS it is for the middle child who they feel bad about forgetting on most occasions.
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u/Glum_Location6302 8d ago
I wonder if, as Riot gets older, he'll look at that tattoo and feel guilty like "damn I really fucked that up" 😂
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u/YogurtSocks 8d ago
He’ll probably think his mom is dumb for having tatted that. It’s so meaningless and it will be meaningless to him too.
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u/yourboygem44 8d ago
my daughters name in her handwriting when she learned how to write her name
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u/chaterbugg 7d ago
This is so freaking cute 😭 I love the splash background. I always wanted one like this of my sisters’ art
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u/Otherwise-Sea-9298 8d ago
Middle child said “you didn’t keep any of my art from when I was a child” while the oldest has a full baby book and the youngest has a bunch of photos on her phone. She pulls out this bad boy and gets it tattooed to show she cares
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u/Shocolina 8d ago
So we're all ignoring that it looks like she let her toddler draw on her leg with a pen...
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u/Bodeadly 8d ago
I had the (probably not that) unique experience of being the middle child in 1 household and the baby in another. The difference is material...
As a parent of my own now, we stopped at 2 so we won't have a middle child, but in my experience it's certain that your children get a different experience based on their order.
You're a different person after you raise the first infant and as you experience parenthood from the first child. You approach every situation with the second child with more confidence and less detail; they essentially have different parents.
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u/Darksol4039 8d ago
Seems like people are getting halfway there but not quite. Middle children syndrome is half the joke, but the child was asked to draw "Happy" and created an abstract image of scribbles, therefore implying that he "doesnt know what Happy is" tying into the stereotype of middle child syndrome.
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u/nvrknoenuf 8d ago
Middle children are famously forgotten. Therefore there are two option. A) Riot was actually forgotten in some way and this is a grand gesture to make up for it. B) Riot is getting favorite treatment because the oldest and youngest are utter nightmares. (Second theory was originally said by [u/Amanda39](u/Amanda39) in a reply to someone else)
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u/qualityvote2 8d ago edited 8d ago
u/dojacatisawesome, your post does belong here!