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Politics

Three Cheers for Us ‘Middles’

Tom Purcell on

In our neighborhood, a small ‘70s family had three kids, but most families had four to six and a few had more than 10.

Now, with both parents working and the cost of raising children considerably higher than it was 40 years ago, most parents prefer to have one or two kids, according to The CUT.

For several reasons, this trend is not good for the rest of us.

The unique characteristics of a middle child are honed by his or her experiences in the family pecking order.

For starters, we are good mediators.

In my family, I always disliked seeing my siblings arguing and always sought to moderate and quell them — and I still do. I'm happiest when we are all getting along.

The International Business Times reports that because middle children “are more willing to compromise and look at all sides of a question,” they turn out to be excellent negotiators compared to first-born or last-born children.

Is the lack of middles one of the unheralded causes of eroding civility? Could be.

 

I’d also argue that we middles have a highly refined sense of humor — which is also beneficial to our national health and well-being.

Humor is how we got attention. Using comic relief is also how we calm everyone down in stressful times and improve the discourse and the general happiness of our friends and family.

I’ve long thought that first-borns and last-borns are generally the most focused and ambitious family members who go on to become leaders in their chosen fields, but I was surprised to learn that half of our presidents were middle children, according to Business Insider.

Joe Biden is the oldest of four, so he probably doesn’t know how to use the most powerful middle-child negotiating tactic to neutralize his opponents: threaten to use their toothbrushes!

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Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Tom Purcell is an author and humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.


Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com

 

 

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