liminality -- Mom and Auntie Mary

n.

1.

(Anthropology) that temporary state during a rite of passage when the participant lacks social status or rank, is required to follow specified forms of conduct, and is expected to show obedience and humility.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co

Though middle school rites of passage aren't formal in much of the United States, both Mom and I remember the misery of middle school liminality.