This Woman's Love Letter To Her Middle Child Explains So Much

Fellow middle children, we finally have an explanation for why it always seemed like we get the least attention of our siblings — we're just too perfect.

Ok, well maybe not all middle children are perfect angels in comparison to their older and younger siblings, but that is the explanation one mom to three gave in a heartfelt love letter to "child 2."

Claire Treacy, who runs a parenting blog called Mammysbrightside, was feeling guilty for missing her daughter's trophy-winning moment at a camogie game a couple of weeks ago.

"I missed it because I was in A & E with her brother, both of us crying - him because he didn't want the nurse or anybody else to even 'look' in his direction, me because I had an awful feeling I was the worst mother in the entire universe," Treacy wrote in the letter, which was posted to Facebook.

She felt like the worst mom because she didn't know how or when her son hurt himself, because she was missing another important event for her middle child, and because it turned out that her son was fine and so she missed the game for no reason.

It's not a rare occurrence with her three children — an older daughter who is eight, her middle daughter who is five, and her son who is three. But there's a good reason.

"You see child 2, well, she's pretty much perfect," Treacy wrote. "You would think that's a good thing, I mean it is, it's just in between her sisters ever growing list of after school activities, playdates and general stroppy cow syndrome, and her brothers ability to lose his mind along with copious amounts of shit throughout the day because of such things as;
His pasta not being 'long enough' or
His socks not being 'short enough' I'm not even joking ?
Child 2 and her happy go lucky, non shit giving little self sometimes gets the least of my attention throughout the day."

She worries that being so focused on the other two will make her daughter develop middle child syndrome — the name given to feelings of being excluded or ignored that middle children often report.

This letter is a step toward letting her daughter know that she sees her.

"I see you in the mornings, your big smile as you go with the flow, humming and without complaint completely oblivious to the other two scalds who by 8am have usually been the cause of me cursing under my breath 465,000 times...
I see you never fighting over what's on the television - always just happy if their happy,
I see you share every single thing you own without question, I see you always thinking of your brother and sister," she wrote.

"I see you sometimes get anxious before school or in crowds, I see you breathing with me and taking me in, I see you watch me wipe your tears, I see you then bravely walking in.
I see you worry when your sister once again slams her door, I see you negotiate with your brother when hes mid shit losing and crying and kicking on the floor, I see you dance and sing... you actually have no idea of the joy you bring."

For other quiet, well-behaved middle children in the world, this post probably explains a lot. Of course, it's not only middle children who might get less attention in favor of their more boisterous siblings, but there is a reason it's called "middle child syndrome."

While we're sure her daughter knows very well that her mom loves her, little notes like this will go a long way in making sure she feels heard. And for Treacy, other moms to multiple kids assured her that she's most definitely not the worst mom ever and that she deserves to give herself a break.

"It’s the one thing we all have in common ― we beat ourselves up over the littlest of things, but at the end of the day our children are happy and loved," Treacy told HuffPost. "And we are all just finding our way and doing our best."

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