Second-borns are the best...!!

        

When my brother graced this world 20 years ago with all his 8 ounce, red faced fatness, I got wound up. I would no longer be the baby of the family. Bloody stupid bundle of fatty fatness!! (But I secretly loved him.) When I was growing up, I absolutely HATED being the middle child. I had an elder sister, and younger brother. Then there's me. Squeezed in the middle. The sorry soggy tomato in the Sibling Sandwich. Grrr. The family had already gotten their golden child, first daughter, and my brother ticked the box of Only Boy-plus-Baby-On- Both-Sides-Of-The-Family. Which unique box did I fit into then?

 It was perhaps for this reason I loved living at my aunts house. I was the only child and all my cousins who are significantly older than me 'adopted' me as their baby sister. Whoop. I loved it! Everyone pampered me and I could also get away with murder. They treated me very well, and was never made me feel like a 'cousin.' I was one of them. Every young child's dream (I assume). 

My paternal gran, my mum, and me. The proud elder sister. YEAH!!!

 I also had two beautiful Bhaabis (sister in laws) who treated me like their own little sister and we had girly times together. Popcorn. Pyjama parties. Dressing up in their adult sophisticated clothes. Getting to keep their pretty jewellery and lovely hand-me-downs. 

As I've grown up, my thinking changed about my own siblings. I had one older than me, one younger than me. One female, one male. Neither of my siblings are in that position. I've realised that actually I have the best of both worlds. I have my elder sister to talk to about absolutely anything you'd need from a girlfriend (career, family, proposals, guys, life goals, do I look fat in this?), and my younger brother (Who also takes the role of elder-protective brother) to be an idiot with (eye signals at that aunt's house you don't like, pulling faces, code words, honest and harsh food critic, pranks...) LOL. 

I no longer have the Middle Child Syndrome in the traditional sense; I'm actually darn lucky to be comfortably surrounded by sibling love from both sides. And I wouldn't change it for the world.