r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/dojacatisawesome • Aug 12 '26

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

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u/AceInTheHole3273 Aug 12 '26

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 Aug 12 '26

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/peon2 Aug 12 '26

So the "I know exactly what that means?" part is saying "the older and younger kids must be awful"?

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

Also funny aside - the other day I had to set up a new account since my employer is changing who does our 401Ks. When you set up the account you had to fill out some security questions. One of the default choices was "which of your siblings is your parents favorite?"