STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

In honour of Middle Child Day on 12 August, Amy Swales, 42, explores what it was like to be sandwiched between siblings

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When my mum, Geraldine, then 32, sat me and my older brother, then five, down on the sofa in April 1986, and gently floated the idea of a new sibling, I was horrified. 'Would you like to be a big sister?' she asked me.

'No!' I replied, firmly. I was only three but I was appalled by the idea that I'd no longer be the youngest. My protests were all in vain, however, because less than nine months later, Mum gave birth to Tom. And so began my middle child career, bringing an end to my short-lived stint as the precious youngest.

A recent study – one of the largest ever on birth order and family size - found that middle children scored higher than others on cooperative personality traits such as agreeableness and honesty-humility. In other words, being genuine and fair with others. This makes total sense to me. Of course, you're going to learn how to get along with people when you're bookended with siblings. And while the research puts a positive spin on being the middle kid, you couldn't have told me that as a child. I was constantly accused of 'middle-itis' by the rest of the family because I hated my lot, bemoaning what I saw as an inherently unfair position. Without the perks of the eldest or the babying of the youngest, for most of my childhood I described it as getting the absolute worst of both worlds.