History Main / MiddleChildSyndrome

TruthInTelevision, to varying degrees [[note]] As Carl Jung puts it everyone is an exception to the rule[[/note]]. It's common to blame or demonize the parents, but in most cases, they do not realize the situation and need it brought up to them. There are also times when the parents do see there is a problem but do not know how to handle it.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'' with Panda being TheBabyOfTheBunch as he's constantly being coddled or protected by is older brother Grizz or [[BigLittleBrother younger brother]] Ice Bear.

* Samantha in ''Literature/AllAmericanGirl''. The younger sister of a beautiful, popular cheerleader and the older sister of a child prodigy genius, she has become the BlackSheep of the family, an artistic loner. Then she becomes the person to get the most attention when she saves the president from an assassination attempt (long story).

* One ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls'' {{Fanfic}} offers an [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation alternate interpretation]]. Rather than making Blossom the Eldest, she is the ''Middle Child'', and her acting more mature and claiming of the leader role is her attempt to compensate for her fear of being overlooked. Buttercup is the Youngest, and her extreme attitude is her way of rebelling against any notion of labeling her the "baby", and Bubbles is the Eldest and simply doesn't care about whatever role she "should" fill, given that all the girls are extremely young ''anyway'' and her sisters are more willing to fill those stereotypes.

* The ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' film series saw fit to bring this part of "cool but rude" Raphael into the mainstream. Putting up with "Splinter, Jr." is his least favorite part of being a turtle. And he doesn't even have a utility like being smart, unlike the other middle child, Donny.

* Samantha in ''All-American Girl''. The younger sister of a beautiful, popular cheerleader and the older sister of a child prodigy genius, she has become the BlackSheep of the family, an artistic loner. Then she becomes the person to get the most attention when she saves the president from an assassination attempt (long story).

* ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'':
** Tiffany Kilbourne.
** Kristy has a bit of this as well: too young to hang out with Sam and Charlie, too old to play with David Michael, Karen, and Andrew.

* Invoked in the DeconstructorFleet fantasy novel ''Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming'', when Azazel decides that the middle son will be the most useful for his purposes because the middle son is the most neglected: The oldest son is the heir, and the [[YoungestChildWins youngest son goes on an adventure and thus becomes successful]], but the middle son enjoys neither kind of success.
* In "Confessions of a Closet Catholic," Justine, known as 'Jussy,' notes that her mother loves her older sister Helena best, her father loves her younger brother Jake best because he is a boy and her mother even loves the French poodle, Bijou, more than her. It is subverted in the end though when her mother tells her that she may understand Helena better because they are alike but she doesn't love her more.

* In the middle grade book "The Haunting of Grade Three" Joey Baker is one of twelve children and is described being not one of the older ones, and not one of the younger ones either. The only members of his family who are shown to pay attention are too of his older siblings who he seems to feel jealous of (for being a spieling bee champion and a football player) and he tells his friends that he's an only child who just happens to have the same last name as those other kids.

* In ''A Mango Shaped Space'', a psychiatrist chalks Mia's claims of hearing colors (a real disorder) up to this.
* Subverted in ''Middle School Blues.'' Main character Cindy's new friend Margo complains that the middle is absolutely the worst place to be born, while Cindy herself is a youngest child and hates the fact that no matter what she does, one of her sisters has done it first. Another friend Helen complains that as the oldest, she's expected to be perfect and set an example for her youngest sibling, and Cindy's best friend Becca is an only child, meaning that her parents never leave her alone. The four come to the conclusion that being a teenager sucks no matter where you were born.
* The Real Kids Readers book ''Molly in the Middle'' deals with Molly, her older sister Tina and younger sister Lucy. Molly's failed attempts to become the oldest, youngest, funniest, loudest, meanest, etc. take up most of the book until she realizes she is the "luckiest" because she doesn't get the disadvantages that come with being the oldest/youngest.

* In "Oh boy !", Siméon (14 years) is the gifted student, Venise (5 years) is very beautiful, and Morgane (9 years) is "only" a clever girl. People who talk about the fate of the children (they're orphans by the beginning of the book) often forget she exists.
* Finnish children book series ''Onneli ja Anneli'' (''Onneli and Anneli'') tells about two little girl besties Onneli and Anneli. They started their friendship by bonding over being unintentionally neglected by their families; while [[OnlyChildSyndrome Anneli]] scuttles between her divorced parents (who barely interact with each other), Onneli is the middle one of [[MassiveNumberedSiblings whopping]] ''[[MassiveNumberedSiblings nine]]'' [[MassiveNumberedSiblings children]]. She is too young to play with the four oldest siblings, and too old to play with the four youngest ones. And when the girls buy a house to live in there together, Onneli's busy family don't even realize that she had been gone for several weeks!
** [[spoiler:Things take an interesting turn when Onneli's parents have a tenth child, but the child count at home remains at nine because Onneli lives with Anneli in their very own house. Essentially, Onneli's nearest younger sibling becomes the new Middle Child. Ouch.]]
* Subverted in ''Literature/TheOutsiders'' where Sodapop is well-liked by his brothers and within their little group. However, this status causes him stress because he is the only mediator between his younger brother Ponyboy and his older brother Darry, who tend to have opposite personality traits and end up in arguments while Sodapop is laid-back and even-tempered.
** The book lampshades this trope; since most of the story is about Ponyboy's misadventures while eldest brother Darry is the breadwinner of the family who frequently clashes with Ponyboy, Sodapop is OutOfFocus for most of the novel and it's not revealed until somewhat late that he 1) had a steady girlfriend, 2) knocked her up, and 3) was heartbroken when she broke up with him to move with her grandmother in Florida. When Ponyboy and Darry cease their fighting to tend to him, Ponyboy admits that they always assumed Sodapop had no problems of his own.

* ''The Sisters Club'' played this perfectly straight with the middle sister, Stevie. Her older sister is the actress, and her younger sister is, of course, the cute one.

* Edith in the ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' films got hit with this, particularly in the second film, where she gets the least development of her sisters (fighting the mutated Kevin) at the climax is interrupted by [[spoiler:Dr. Nefario using the PX-41 antidote on Kevin at the very last second]]. She even gets ignored by [[Creator/{{Universal}} the marketing team]], as the theatrical trailers for the three films don't show any of her speaking parts, instead focusing on Margo and Agnes in the first two, and Agnes in the third.

* The entire ComicBook/YoungJustice generation is currently suffering from this trope. They've been kid sidekicks for over twenty years, with no [[SidekickGraduationsStick graduation]] in sight. [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]] and [[ComicBook/{{Impulse}} Bart]] are among the few sidekicks with ''failed'' gradutions under their belts, and [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} Kon]] and [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie]] have never even made the attempt. Despite this, writers have begun introducing a new generation of young heroes like Jonathan Kent, Damian Wayne, Wallace West, and Yara Flor to take their places. As a result, the members of the ComicBook/YoungJustice generation are being forced from their roles before establishing a new status quo - unlike their older siblings, all of whom left their sidekick roles on their own terms and were played as [[BigBrotherMentor cool mentors]] to their successors. This makes the Young Justice characters feel like the middle children of the entire DCU: not old enough to have their own adventures, but too old to tag along with their mentors anymore.

** Lampshaded by [[Comicbook/RobinSeries Tim]], when he refers to Jason as the "Jan Brady" of the [=BatFamily=]:

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', main character Hawke has two younger siblings: twins Carver (a warrior) and Bethany (a mage). Carver is technically the older twin and suffers this trope ''hard''. If Hawke is a mage, then their parents (including a mage father) focused more attention on the two magical siblings by necessity, leaving Carver feeling left out at times. If Hawke is a warrior/rogue, then it's heavily implied that Carver was never as good a fighter, and Bethany was Daddy's Girl due to their shared magical sense. Either way, Carver has a massive chip on his shoulder and his approval meter appropriately starts off on the "Rival" side.

That's essentially the definition of Middle Child Syndrome, in which a child automatically may become TheUnfavorite or the rebellious BlackSheep, specifically because they are the easiest child to overlook. They're not old enough to be given the responsibilities and privileges of the oldest, and the youngest child took their spot as the spoiled and doted-on "baby" of the family. This tends to be more of an issue when there are [[RuleOfThree three children]] rather than four or more. Oftentimes in media, the middle child ends up becoming more of the DeadpanSnarker or the quirky one for this reason. That, or they end up the best-adjusted between the overly-responsible elder sibling and overly-privileged younger.

* In '"Literature/GoneWithTheWind'', while Scarlett's youngest child Bonnie is her favorite and she's genuinely sad to realize that her oldest child Wade is afraid of her, her middle child Ella fits this trope to a T, right down to the fact that she barely gets any focus, except when Scarlett complains about what a "silly child" she is and later, after Bonnie's death, to wish that ''she'' had died instead.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' as [[TheHero Chrom]] is the main character alongside the Avatar and while he expresses a desire to live up to Emmeryn's legacy, it's not treated like a massive hindrance for his character. His younger sister Lissa tends to be the one who vocalises the most worry about being unimpressive and a disappointment following [[TheParagon Emmeryn]] and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Chrom]] and even worries that her best friend Maribelle is more "princess-like" than she is.

Everyone loves the oldest child because the [[ParentalFavoritism parents can rely on them]], [[BigBrotherMentor they watch out for their siblings]], and [[CoolBigSis they're so confidently attractive]]. The YoungestChildWins because they're [[TheBabyOfTheBunch the "baby"]]. But what does that leave the one in the middle?