Middle Child’s Day is being observed on Monday, Aug. 12, and it is a real holiday, although it goes by unnoticed.
But a Fort Flauderdale, Florida man--the middle child of his family--wants people to know that it exists. “You didn’t even know there was a Middle Child’s Day?? Of course you didn’t, and that’s the point. It’s like we were given a holiday just so everyone could ignore it! Typical Middle Child treatment,” Bruce Hopman wrote on his blog.
It appears that Hopman, the self-appointed head of the International Middle Child Union (IMCU), created the day.
“What do we want!? ATTENTION! When do we want it!? NOW! Or as soon as you’re done paying attention to our siblings,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Our whole lives, middle children crave attention, but we’re always ignored, so it’s typical that someone would give us a holiday just so they could ignore it,” Hopman, a former advertising executive, told the Orlando Sun-Sentinel, and who was joking when he made the comment.
Hopman says middle children often get “unfair” treatment, adding: “You never hear of first-born child syndrome or last-born child syndrome. But we were lucky enough to have middle-child syndrome bestowed upon us." It also appears that Hopman is trying to sell greeting cards regarding Middle Child’s Day.
Hopman says that he has taken to social media to promote the day, saying that middle children should change their Facebook profile images to Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Bill Gates, or other famous middle children.
“You know, like they do for other really important causes, like Supreme Court rulings,” he said.