Middle Child Syndrome

It’s a real thing:

My 9 year old was the most excited in our family about being a big sister. She always had a real issue with being the little sister. We would always hear her say, “It SUCKS to be the little sister.” Mind you, most of this came because she wanted to do everything her older sister did and my oldest is not the most affectionate and motherly girl so, she would just take off and not look back. It would break my heart to see her cry and think it really did suck to be the younger one. When she found out she was finally out of the youngest category she was thrilled. She’s definitely an old soul who will probably have many kids of her own. Everyone always said, “Wait until the baby is here” and “middle child syndrome happens to all kids.” And, I would think that didn’t really apply to me because my daughter was ecstatic to be the middle child. Well little did I know that once the baby was here things would change a bit. I guess she felt a little lack of attention so she found the best way to get it. One evening we were getting ready for dinner and going through are usual routing (kids showering, baby being fed and dogs being let out), when suddenly my beautiful, adorable, sweet daughter comes to me to brush her hair and I look at her face and my jaw dropped. There it was, she shaved her eyebrows!!!!! I went nuts, she definitely accomplished what she was trying to do. My husband found it hysterical and I was mortified. She had the most beautiful eyebrows and now they were gone, at that moment I wasn’t even thinking it was hair and it would grow back. As I calmed down, I sat her down and spoke with her, apparently she did it with my razor and no mirror. Thank God she didn’t get hurt and she seemed to be as surprised as we were. She said she was trying to clean them up not shave them off. I couldn’t help it, I had to break down and laugh my butt off. I explained to her how difficult a new baby is and how time consuming it could be and if she ever felt she needed some love and attention, to just come out and say it. Of course the next couple of weeks were extra work as we had to wake up earlier than normal and paint her eyebrows on because she refused to go to school that way (laughing out loud)! The funniest thing was picking her up at school and finding her hiding under her sweater because her eyebrows had melted off in Physical Education class.