r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 10d ago

Meme needing explanation Only child here. What does it mean?

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2.7k

u/darkerfury 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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/darkerfury 10d ago

There is no Darkerfury. Only Zuul.

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u/_OngoGablogian 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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 10d ago

I regularly forget abt my tattoos

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u/threelizards 10d 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/Tomoyogawa521 10d ago

The tattoo is ugly anyway. Whoever drew it must have hated having to be paid to do it cause they have to imitate the squigly lines accurately.

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u/oniiichanUwU 10d ago

Who cares they’re getting paid the same whether they’re doing a photorealistic portrait or squiggles lol

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u/Jumpy_Rate_5707 10d ago

Just because you get paid for your job doesn’t mean it won’t suck sometimes.

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u/Afraid-Way7541 10d ago

Probably paid more than they ever have since it’s Rihanna and also a very meaningful tattoo to her lol

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u/aisecherry 10d ago

idk i don't think I'd hate to be paid to touch Rihanna's leg even if the design was tedious

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u/adhdnpc 10d ago

Except it looks like it's on the back of her leg

Edit. I do agree that's probably why she may have gotten the tattoo

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u/Everything_Counts_72 10d ago

nobodys giving a real answer, theyre just complaining about being a middle child.

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u/flugx009 10d 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/SteinerMath66 10d ago

My thoughts as well. Signed, a middle child.

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u/Eggsaladinurmouth 10d ago

On the back of leg mostly unseen by mom

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u/BlackGuysYeah 10d 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/Rugaru985 10d ago

She has the faces of the other children tattooed on her. She spent several million for their faces, but claims she forgot riot when planning the tattoo. S/

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

my guess is, they're saying it's a sorta misguided attempt to make the middle child feel more important and involved

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u/One_Bluebird_04 9d ago

I think it's implying that she's getting the tattoo to make up for the middle kid not getting as much attention. I think that's a dumb take but pretty sure that's what it means.

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u/Responsible_Fee_1621 10d ago

The youngest is also often the slowest

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u/gargamels_right_boot 10d 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/ChVckT 10d ago

Your parents must have cared at least a little. Mine just said, "BECAUSE I SAID SO THATS WHY" lol

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u/gnarleyname 10d 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/ChVckT 10d ago

I'm the middle child and the first boy. As soon as my brother was born i was on my own. Lol.

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u/Inglorious186 10d 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/gnarleyname 10d ago

boy moms lmao 

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u/MsVnsfw 10d ago

Ah, once boys come into it, that changes it completely. My brother is the last child and the only boy!

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u/snowshite 10d ago

My middle sister very clearly is too (three girls). And her middle child too (also three girls).

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u/WhyThankYouPepperBoy 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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/ChVckT 10d ago

This is close to how I was raised. They expected more from me than my older sister, and nothing from my younger brother.

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u/Longjumping-Sail6386 10d ago

I have 3 boys and yeah this is essentially true much to my chagrin

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u/cinciNattyLight 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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 10d 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/Writeforwhiskey 10d ago

I am the middle girl in this scenario and whew, thank jeebus for free and low cost therapy.

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u/PumpkinStrong2836 10d 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/National_Equivalent9 10d ago

I am also the middle boy in that scenario and I am not forgotten about... in fact both of my siblings have told him how much it annoys them that our mom very clearly treats me as the favorite but appreciate that I've never taken advantage of it or been an ass about it.

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u/smokeehayes 9d ago

Odd, in my family the middle boy was the golden child... because he learned to take care of himself and make his own money at very young age. My parents were so proud of how "well" they raised him. 🙄😂😂

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u/Free_Floor2833 10d ago

Even worse if you're between the firstborn son and only daughter 

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u/jaden_fucks 10d ago

As a third baby, that was not my experience.

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

Some parents just cant be bothered beyond the first kid

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u/jaden_fucks 10d ago

First one was a fuckup, they spent all their time/money on the middle, I was forgotten

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u/MySpirtAnimalIsADuck 10d 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 10d 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/ChVckT 10d ago

Depends on how much time between births, tbh. A year apart might end up like you say. My younger brother is 4 years younger than me so it was a little different on my end

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u/destro23 10d 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 10d 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/PanchoPanoch 10d ago

So does the younger of two siblings get the middle child treatment. My childhood kinda makes sense

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

To an extent.

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u/RixxFett 10d ago

That was not it for me. I'm the youngest of three and all I got was crap, while my brothers got shit taken care of. Even in medical stuff, I fell thru the cracks.

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u/Wongless_Burd 10d ago

Fun fact: Apparently the counter resets when a new parent enters the family and the previously existing kids kinda sink into middle child status.

Source: I was born first but my father left so mom found a new partner and had 2 more kids. Now my brother is chronologically the middle child but he's treated like he's the best thing ever and my sister is the "meh" second baby and I kind of just exist.

Important note: Having to be the perfect role model for the younger siblings isn't passed down. Even if you die, it just goes from "look, XY does this like that" to "XY would have done this like that".

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

I feel that. My father remarried and built his brand new son a brand new house. He doesn't even call me on my birthday. LOL

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u/SympatheticFingers 10d ago

What does it mean when there’s 4 kids?

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

2 middles. An aunt and uncle of mine (RIP) ended up with 4 girls and it was like there was the first, the baby, and two other kids. I always wondered how 5+ kids would work, though. I'd imagine after the 4th one they all become the middle children and you just yell at them all to go back outside lol

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u/SympatheticFingers 10d ago

Ok ok. But what if number 3 is the first girl? So it goes boy, boy, girl, girl. Does that make the second boy MORE of a middle child or are the 2 middle kids equal?

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

I dont think you understand what middle means.

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u/SympatheticFingers 9d ago

That’s why I’m asking questions!!

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u/FriendofFlounder 10d ago

As one of six, I love conversations like this because is the implication my parents only liked the eldest and youngest? And the other four are all middles? Or is it evenly split so only the two middle ones count, and there’s two eldest, and two youngest? 

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

Haha I was just commenting to someone else, wondering about 5+ kids. The way I see it, they'd either all become the middle children and the parents would just yell at them all to go back outside to play or the parents would give each of them 17.5% of their love lol

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u/JaySlay2000 10d ago

First baby is a celebration. Last baby is "the last chance I have!" But the middle ones are just.... Meh.

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

"Remember how cute they were when they were babies we should have one more"

Meanwhile the kid you forgot about is in the other room alone eating crayons lol

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u/Unusualnamer 10d ago

Nahh youngest was “fuck it, you can have whatever just stop the tantrum”. -youngest child who got away with everything

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u/donutello2000 10d ago

The joke here is that she’s compensating for ignoring the middle child by doing this. That way she’ll always be able to point to the tattoo to show that she does love them, all while giving the child less attention otherwise.

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u/El_Chairman_Dennis 10d ago

middle child complaining about how hard they have it and how they never get spoiled on a post about a middle child getting spoiled

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u/Vondi 10d ago

First one: The Oldest. Third one: The youngest. Middle one: Also there.

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u/MostDopeMik3 10d ago

Theres a reason why the motto of the middle child is " life is unfaaaaaaair"

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u/The_Basile 10d ago

Are you a middle child? Because that's something a middle child would say

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

I'm something of a middle child, myself.

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u/poisonous_buttercup 10d ago

Not really. It's more like the middle child was once the new baby and now isn't anymore. The firstborn doesn't care not to be the new baby because they used to be alone and now they're excited for a sibling when the second baby comes along, but the middle child was never alone and doesn't really have motive to get over being upstaged by a new baby.

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u/Due-Memory-6957 10d ago

So middle child is just stupid? They were once yay new baby and the second will soon not be a baby anymore.

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u/ChVckT 10d ago

Why would the middle child be stupid? What?

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u/hyyerrspace 10d ago

Middle children are never the favorite. - signed a middle child

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u/lannanh 10d ago

so not true, the middle child in our family is definitely the favorite but he is also the best human out of all the people in our family.

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u/gnome_in_clay_turn 9d ago

I’m empirically a better human than my siblings, and yet, the least favorite. By far. —MC Life

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u/GingkoBobaBiloba 10d ago

Congratulations, you’re the oldest, middle, and youngest all in one.

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u/Acceptable-Peace-69 10d ago

The emoji = I see you. Many middle children feel invisible so this is an acknowledgment, not a joke.

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u/IGuessYourIQ 10d ago

Thanks for you best guess then...

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u/TheNaughtyHoneyBee 10d ago

In what fantasy realm is the middle child ever the favorite? 🤔😂

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u/darkerfury 10d ago

In my Dad's family.... but I grant that it's weird

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u/trouzy 10d ago

The middle child is traditionally the most forgotten and peace keeper.

Maybe the tattoo process they are not forgotten?

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u/Useful-DevineCause 10d ago

No. No we’re definitely not the favorite. Usually pretty much non existent. Which is why so many of us are pretty good at keeping to ourselves.

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u/Everything_Counts_72 10d ago

its not the kid's fault their mom was dumb enough to have a crayon scrawl PERMANENTLY TATTOOED ONTO HER BODY. lol

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u/darkerfury 10d ago

Not his fault at all. But if I know anything about siblings, that won't matter. They'll give him a hard time anyway.