About Kidz in the Middle

A Kid in the Middle is a youngish sort of person—but not too young—the sort whose bedtime is still around 9:30 or 10:00, who has way too many chores to do, yet doesn’t earn enough allowance to buy anything particularly cool. A  Kid in the Middle is the sort who is given piles of homework, is expected to behave nicely in public, yet whose screen time is severely limited by hovering parents. And yes, a  Kid in the Middle is the sort who often blurts, That's not fair! to which the reply is invariably, Who said life is fair?

Kidz in the Middle-ness starts around the age of eleven or twelve when a young person begins to experience complete metamorphosis—a transitional stage given the uncomfortably icky name of puberty. During this peculiar period,  Kidz in the Middle will become vastly more social, emotional, and independent…ish, all while enduring various bodily transformations far too embarrassing to mention here. In addition, a Kid in the Middle's mood is likely to vacillate wildly between feelings of meh, wow, wah, awesome, ugh, haha, omg, really? and often uh-uh. Eventually, around year thirteen or fourteen—just like caterpillars—these youngsters will re-emerge as annoying adolescent butterflies called high schoolers, marking the end of the  Kidz in the Middle years.   —Doida