glass child

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English

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Etymology

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Popularized on TikTok in 2023.

Noun

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glass child (plural glass children)

  1. (neologism) A child who feels "invisible" to their parents due to having a sibling with a serious health condition or disability who occupies a disproportionate amount of their parents' attention.
    • 2023 March 23, Georgia Mooney, “Young people on TikTok are sharing what it means to be a glass child and their experiences”, in The Tab[1], archived from the original on 2023-05-29:
      On the other hand, TikTok users are sharing their guilt after learning their siblings were the glass child because of them.
    • 2023 September 30, Soo Kim, “I Was A 'Glass Child'—It Made Me an Anxious Adult”, in Newsweek[2], New York, N.Y.: Newsweek Publishing LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-12-17:
      Missud said the pressure that glass children put on themselves to "keep the peace, be overly self-sufficient and remain the unproblematic 'golden child'" can be extremely challenging to unlearn.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see glass,‎ child. (a child made of glass)