By Ray Richmond | The Hollywood Reporter

The Barones' three kids -- that is, the sibling actors who have played them for nine seasons -- are Sweeten enough for all.

With so much attention given to "Everybody Loves Raymond's" grown-up Barone family members, one might rightly wonder: What about the children? Ray and Debra Barone have three of them on the CBS show, but they're fairly invisible -- a rarity for a series that sees itself as a family comedy.

And what makes them even more interesting is that the Barone's offspring are not just playing siblings on television, they are brothers and sister in real life: Madylin (Ally), Sawyer (Geoffrey) and Sullivan (Michael) Sweeten.

Madylin, who turns 14 on June 27, was 5 when "Raymond" signed on the air; her brothers, a scant 14 months when shooting began, celebrated their 10th birthday recently. They've literally grown up before the eyes of the nation, the show set serving as their de facto schoolyard.

For the Sweeten boys, naming the coolest thing about being part of a classic TV comedy is easy: It's the time star Ray Romano gifted them with go-carts for Christmas (Sullivan says), and that Romano often goes off-script and makes up his own lines (Sawyer says).

Madylin says she's both blessed and cursed by the "Raymond" experience. "Having grown up with a lot of adults around me all the time, I feel like I know a lot more than most 13-year-olds," says the actress, who was largely schooled on the set and at home. "The few times I actually went to elementary school, I couldn't believe how rude the kids were. So, it has been great not to have to be part of that."

But Madylin has been ready to spread her performing wings for some time: "I've been typecast as a little girl, and I'm no longer a little girl. I am so ready to do more now."

The Sweeten's mother, Lizz, says she's finally ready to exhale with the show's conclusion. "It has often been a struggle to maintain a normal life for the three of them," she admits. "The toughest thing has been missing out on school field trips and a lot of things kids who aren't on a TV show get to do. I've worked hard to keep things as light and easy for them as possible, so it never seemed like a job."

The plus side of all this, however, is that they now head toward their adult lives with a large chunk of cash gathering interest in trust accounts -- having earned spotlight bucks while remaining relatively anonymous.

Although, perhaps a little too anonymous for Lizz's taste. "There were times when they were treated a little like second-class citizens on the show because they're just kids and because the show didn't emphasize their characters. But I can probably think of 10 positives to counter any negatives about the whole experience."