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Original poster

How was I born on the wrong day?

370 replies

PossiblyDreaming · 06/03/2022 23:54

I’ve always thought I was born on a Sunday which always made me feel very smug as a child whenever I saw that nursery rhyme that goes “Monday’s child is fair of face” etc until it gets to Sunday’s child and says how much better kids born on a Sunday are.

Anyway, I was recently filling out some online form where I had to put in my date of birth and it came up on a calendar showing that actually I was born on a Monday. I double checked it with another calendar and, yes, I was definitely born on a Monday. I didn’t think much of it but text my mum to tell her as I thought it was mildly amusing that she’s forgotten when I was born.

Except my mum is 100% adamant that I was born on a Sunday. She remembers it specifically as she made my dad run to the church to drag my grandparents out so that they could watch my brother while he drove her to hospital. My grandparents only ever went to church on a Sunday and my dad was a teacher so if it had been a weekday he wouldn’t have been at home when my mum went into labour. It was mid October so wouldn’t have been a bank holiday. It wasn’t a long labour, I was born a couple of hours later so it wasn’t like my mum was labouring overnight and I was born the next day or anything.

My mum is 70 and fully compos mentis but she can’t get my dad or her parents to corroborate as they’re dead. She is absolutely adamant that I was born on Sunday and now thinks that my birthday was recorded incorrectly and it’s actually the day before the day that I’ve celebrated all my life 😂. I’ve got the original copy of my birth certificate and it says the date that I’ve always thought it was.

I know it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things but it’s really odd. Is there any really obvious way that I’m missing that might confirm either way? Do I now celebrate my birthday the day before even though all my public records show it as being the next day?

OP posts:
Annonymiss123 · 06/03/2022 23:56

Did she go into labour on Sunday and you were born past midnight on Monday?

Xerac · 06/03/2022 23:58

Who registered your birth ? Could they have given the wrong date to the registrar ?

TidyDancer · 06/03/2022 23:59

@Annonymiss123

Did she go into labour on Sunday and you were born past midnight on Monday?

Yeah I think it has to be this. All the action happened on the Sunday but you popped out in the very early hours of the next day!

It's quite strange that it's only just come to light though which probably makes it seem a bit more of a wow moment!

RNBrie · 07/03/2022 00:00

I think it's quite possible someone made a mistake with the date when registering your birth... can your mum remember if it was her or your dad? One of my friends discovered when she was a teenager that her name on the birth certificate was spelled differently than how she'd always been told it was spelt. Her dad made a mistake when registering her and her mum was so angry about it that they just pretended it was the right spelling...

Peachtoiletpaper · 07/03/2022 00:05

I don't suppose it's inconceivable that there was a mistake in the birth register. I wonder if the hospital would have any records of their own, or if it would be on your mum's medical records? Suppose it makes no difference in the scheme of things and I'd probably keep my 'incorrect' birthday but I'd be very tempted to find out, just out of curiosity! How old is your brother, would he have any recollection?

SleepingStandingUp · 07/03/2022 00:10

Seems more likely its an input error than ops Mom not knowing that she laboured through midnight.

Sunday Church would have presumably been daytime, Dad grabbed grandparents from church and Mom laboured a few hours. That's not going to be overnight unless she was utterly delirious and confused 4 for 14 hours

SleepingStandingUp · 07/03/2022 00:11

Anyway, you're still fair of face. Ateast it wasn't a Wednesday.

DS and I are both Thursday children and DH and DTwins are Friday children.

Madlymumming · 07/03/2022 00:11

That's very strange as my sister always believed she was born on a Tuesday. Recently she has discovered her birth date was actually a Wednesday.

Neither of our parents are with us so we can't check with them. And our older brother is very close in age to my sister so wouldn't have been aware.

fallfallfall · 07/03/2022 00:14

drugs were something else years ago, believe me many a women would not know what day it was.
my mom labored in a room with bunk beds according to her, i chuckle at the vision of some nurse doing a ve on the woman on the top bunk or asking her to come down when fully dilated.

Original poster
PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 00:16

No, mum definitely didn’t labour overnight. She said dad went to church to get grandparents, straight to hospital, I was born a couple of hours later. Church would’ve been mid morning. My brother was only 3 so no chance he’d remember.

OP posts:
Original poster
PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 00:18

I was born at a local cottage hospital and there was no pain medication as my mum kept telling me when I was in labour having had pethidine and she couldn’t understand how it could possibly still hurt 🙄

OP posts:
SukiToast · 07/03/2022 00:20

How strange OP! I'd use it as an excuse to celebrate on both days :-D

Does anyone know the full rhyme? Would love to know it!

SleepingStandingUp · 07/03/2022 00:23

@SukiToast

How strange OP! I'd use it as an excuse to celebrate on both days :-D

Does anyone know the full rhyme? Would love to know it!

Mondays child is fair of face Tuesdays child is full of grace Wednesdays child is full of woe Thursdays child has far to go Fridays child is loving and giving Saturdays child works hard for a living And the child that is born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe, good and gay
FluffyBooBoo · 07/03/2022 00:24

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
And the child born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.

Boosterquery · 07/03/2022 00:25

My brother was only 3 so no chance he’d remember.
Worth asking your brother. Age gap between my DS and DD is less than three years, but DS has some memory of the day DD was born.

godmum56 · 07/03/2022 00:26

Mondays child is fair of face
Tuesdays child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go
Friday's child is loving and giving
Saturdays child works hard for a living
But the child who is born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe and good and gay

Hoowhoowho · 07/03/2022 00:40

It would have to have been a few errors made for the date to be wrong. The midwife/hospital notifies the birth within 72 hours so they would have had to have submitted the wrong date. Then the parent who registered the birth would have had to also agree with that date. It’s possible but definitely very unlikely. A difference between birth notification and birth registration would have been a red flag. Are you sure it really was a Monday? Are the online calendars right?

fallfallfall · 07/03/2022 00:40

so any holiday near you're actual birthday where by your grandparents might have been attending mass (ash wednesday or shrove tuesday etc)

Blueroses99 · 07/03/2022 00:40

Could there have been an event in church such as a funeral or christening that your grandparents attended, and it was during half term so your dad wasn’t at work?

Otherwise, it does sound like it was recorded wrong! How odd.

Kite22 · 07/03/2022 00:44

Possibly they were at an evening service (very common back in the day) and " a couple of hours" was perhaps a bit longer than she remembers (had to get GPs, get back, get to hospital, get settled in, before starts thinking about how long they had been there) so it slipped over into Monday early hours? or even 12.03am or something ??

Ozanj · 07/03/2022 00:49

It probably may have been recorded wrong. 30-40 years ago in some areas babies born on the weekend weren’t registered until the Monday as that’s when the registrar came in. It happened to my brother & a few of my friends and my parents and theirs corroborate it. Dad had to argue to get db’s bc corrected because it was important to mum (for hindu astrology) that the right date was included.

bultaoreune · 07/03/2022 00:51

was she in hospital overnight? May be the birth was mistakenly registered the day after you were born if she was still in the hospital at that time.

huuskymam · 07/03/2022 00:53

Could it have been a religious holiday that had your grand parents in church on Monday and your dad off work.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 07/03/2022 00:59

I always think both mine were born on Sundays; my DD was born about Sunday teatime on her due date. DS was actually born 3am on his Monday due date but always feels like Sunday as lead up all Sunday. And obviously DH didn't go to work. Smile

Bahhhhhumbug · 07/03/2022 01:08

Hospital records?You can apply for them and the time and day should be on there