Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

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:
girlmom21 · 07/03/2022 11:05

@PossiblyDreaming

These are the two days I could have been born on, neither one has anything memorable that happened. My mum has always told me I shared a birthday with Cliff Richard though (not the same year!) and, having just checked, he was born on the 14th while my birthday is “officially” the 15th.

My mum is going to have a hunt for my baby bracelet today as she’s convinced Talgarth she’s got it somewhere. But then she’s also told me I was born on a different day for the last 37 years so is possibly not the most reliable source 😂

Maybe that's why she got it wrong - because she's convinced herself you were going to be born on Cliff Richards birthday but you were a day later, or that was your due date.
Original poster
PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 11:05

I don’t think my grandparents would be in church for harvest festival. They didn’t normally get involved with school stuff or any stuff with the church really other than turning up on Sundays and holy days.

OP posts:
MuddyPawsWars · 07/03/2022 11:06

I think it's most likely it was registered the wrong date. Birth notifications were filled in by paper then and sent to the registrar. Maybe the midwife put in the wrong date and when the registrar did the birth certificate it wasn't noticed. Or the registrar put in the wrong date.

When birth notifications first went computerised I spent six months putting in C for Caucasian before I'd discovered C was for Chinese. Though I don't think that information features anywhere on the birth certificate.

And I recall an elderly lady who told me her son was called Herrick.
I remarked it was an unusual name and she explained it was meant to be Eric but the registrar spelt it Herrick. A classy improvement imo.

Original poster
PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 11:07

@girlmom21 I was born 3 weeks prematurely which she was annoyed about as she was expecting me to be late like my brother was. I also have no idea why she remembers it as being Cliff Richard’s birthday as she has no interest in him or his music at all.

OP posts:
girlmom21 · 07/03/2022 11:08

I think I love your mom Grin

Original poster
PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 11:08

@MuddyPawsWars if I look up my records and it turns out that I’m Chinese as well I’m going to be even more confused.

OP posts:
MuddyPawsWars · 07/03/2022 11:09
Grin
RonCarlos · 07/03/2022 11:11

Sorry OP but this post made me chuckle! I think it is unlikely your Mum misremembered this given the clear detail involved. My vote is for the Monday registrar putting the wrong date down. That said, you'd think your parents might have noticed in the intervening years Wink

Juno22 · 07/03/2022 11:15

But if it was registered on the wrong date you would have received birthday cards or presents on a different day. At least one. From the people who knew the correct date. It's just impossible that every single person got the date wrong. The date on the birth certificate is the same date as everyone believes OP was born! There's no discrepancy.

I know the dates all my DGC were born but I've never seen their birth certificates. I know because I was told of their birth.

If OP was born on the Sunday a few hours after her parents were at church then why would every single person in their family circle think her birth date was the Monday?

sodastreamer · 07/03/2022 11:16

Sounds like your mum was so obsessed with Cliff Richard that neither she nor any of your others relatives have noticed over the years that you don't actually share his birthday! Grin

CIaireFraser · 07/03/2022 11:33

Haven't rtft, but DD was born at 12.02am on a Sunday. In my head she was born on the Saturday, because that's the day I was in labour and did all the work, and also because 12.02 on a Sunday morning was still Saturday night to me back when I was 23!

Hence I always think of her being born on Saturday night.

MimiDaisy11 · 07/03/2022 11:34

@MuddyPawsWars
In those examples you give the people know the info in the birth certificate is wrong but OP’s mother had thought the date of birth on the certificate was her date of birth. So she either didn’t remember the date or the day correctly.

Pandamumium · 07/03/2022 11:36

The same thing happened to me. I always thought I was born on a Sunday, but I the saw a calendar that showed my birthday was on a Monday.
My mother had gone into labour on the Sunday, but I was born just after midnight. However, to my mother, it was still Sunday night.

Original poster
PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 11:38

I think I’ll just try and turn my birthday into a two day celebration from now on to try and cover all bases.

OP posts:
MRex · 07/03/2022 11:39

If she called you Carrie then I'm back on team Sunday!

Frazzled2207 · 07/03/2022 11:41

I do think it’s possible to convince yourself that something happened when in fact it didn’t, for a range of reasons

Original poster
PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 12:22

@Frazzled2207 absolutely it is. It just seems a really odd thing for my mum to convince herself about. She’s normally happy to admit when she’s wrong (although it’s rare) and it’s not like sending my dad to get my grandparents from church is a particularly dramatic or amusing anecdote so I can’t think why she’s convince herself it’s true when it isn’t.

OP posts:
Dinoteeth · 07/03/2022 12:55

I'm convinced you were born just after midnight.
Everything happened on Sunday as she thought. But she laboured longer and you were born just into Monday.
She must have had the radio or something on that told her Cliff Richards birthday when she was in labour hence its stuck I her head.

Even in the 70s I can't see the records bing wrong

BertieBotts · 07/03/2022 14:31

People do know that you can just click on your computer clock and wind it back to the 70s to check a date, or do the same in the calendar in your phone, right? There's no need to corroborate the date in complicated ways just because you don't trust a website.

The cliff Richard and church stories are definitely suggesting to me that she went over midnight. It's the kind of thing that I did, I went into hospital perfectly lucid saying oh the baby's birthday is going to be today! And then it took longer than expected and it wasn't that day. But the bit where I remember thinking about the date would have been the day before.

Hospital bracelet would probably tell you if she has it.

Juno22 · 07/03/2022 14:33

Does your birth certificate have the time of birth on it OP?

BoredBoredBoredB · 07/03/2022 14:44

Does your birth certificate have the time of birth on it OP?

That’s just for multiple births, isn’t it?

Juno22 · 07/03/2022 14:46

My birth certificate has the time of birth on it. I assumed that was usual but maybe not.

DoNotTouchTheWater · 07/03/2022 14:49

[quote PossiblyDreaming]@Frazzled2207 absolutely it is. It just seems a really odd thing for my mum to convince herself about. She’s normally happy to admit when she’s wrong (although it’s rare) and it’s not like sending my dad to get my grandparents from church is a particularly dramatic or amusing anecdote so I can’t think why she’s convince herself it’s true when it isn’t.[/quote]
There’s also the Mandela effect.

But the most likely scenario is that she did go into labour on the Sunday but you were born on the Monday. Loads of people go into hospital and don’t have the baby til the next day.

The feeling of ‘it was a Sunday and we had to…’ is probably much stronger than the knowledge that you were born at 3am on Monday morning.

ivykaty44 · 07/03/2022 15:07

My birth certificate has the time of birth on it. I assumed that was usual but maybe not

not a requirement for BC

usually just multiple births not single

GiantKitten · 07/03/2022 15:11

Didn’t she ever query the date on your birth certificate?