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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:
Silvershroud · 07/03/2022 07:53

Could there have been a mix-up at the hopital and they got the wristbands wrong?

LesleyA · 07/03/2022 07:53

Wrong year?

PennineWayinSlingbacks · 07/03/2022 07:54

But what about subsequent ID checks? If OP was recorded a day late by mistake, then her wrong birth date would be on things like a passport. Not that people born in the 70s routinely had childhood passports… but that’s the sort of thing where the application form would be rejected for wrong date filled in (doesn’t match) or you open the new passport and think, “it’s not the 12th!

My DF was born in rural Ireland during the war. The registration town was miles away, they had no car. Subsequently they didnt register him in time and they just backdated his birthday. He celebrates his real birthday (assuming they remembered that right!) But his official birthday is 8 weeks later!

haaaaaaalp · 07/03/2022 07:55

My grandad wrote the wrong date on the birth certificate so my mum has a real birthday and an official birthday.

Basically the queen.

Powertoyou · 07/03/2022 07:56

In October it could of been All Souls’ Day.

Dyra · 07/03/2022 07:58

@brokengoalposts

The rhyme is actually "Wednesday's child knows no woe", the "full o" bit has been mistakenly taken from Tuesday for so long that people think it is correct. Wednesday is a good one too, in reality.
Thanks for this from a Wednesday's child potentially having a Wednesday child this week.

I'm going with your mum has some mixed up memories. My own mum wishes me a happy birthday a day early most years. Why? Because for some reason she's fixed my birthday as on the 5th when it's actually the 6th for example. But she's gotten confused with the birthdays of my Dad and her twin siblings who were born on the 5th (we're all in different months). Every document + everyone else (Dad included), says my birthday is the 6th.

Natsku · 07/03/2022 07:59

Most likely is that your mum remembered wrong but mistakes can happen, I got registered as the wrong bloody sex!

Change123today · 07/03/2022 07:59

My Mum can’t remember what time either my sister or I was born! We’ve asked her but she just doesn’t remember- she said one of us was born at night …maybe
Grin
It could be your Mum holding memories in a wrong order - ie she remembers the Sunday as the last day pre baby but doesn’t relate it to the birth being Monday.

KatieKat88 · 07/03/2022 08:04

I got DD one of those 'on the day you were born' posters for the nursery. They've changed it to 'Wednesday's child is merry and glad'! She is now 2 and bounces from that to being full of woe within a millisecond so I feel both can be considered accurate Grin

VonWeasel · 07/03/2022 08:08

I know someone (born abroad) who is actually a year younger than his birth certificate says. His mum said it was recorded incorrectly and I am sure that a mother would remember what year she gave birth!

Frazzled2207 · 07/03/2022 08:09

If you have been registered incorrectly then surely jr would have caused a problem with passports etc as the dates have to match up.

I reckon your mum was at church on a Monday for some reason.

Juno22 · 07/03/2022 08:19

If the date was registered incorrectly then it would be a different date from the one you've been celebrating all these years. If it isn't then the chances are your mum is remembering things incorrectly. Most people remember dates rather than days.

BoredBoredBoredB · 07/03/2022 08:24

@KatieKat88

I got DD one of those 'on the day you were born' posters for the nursery. They've changed it to 'Wednesday's child is merry and glad'! She is now 2 and bounces from that to being full of woe within a millisecond so I feel both can be considered accurate Grin
What’s Thursday’s child in that version? Someone told me ‘Far to go’ means a lot of improving to do. I’m not convinced it ever actually meant anything.
Cookerhood · 07/03/2022 08:24

It was still early October, folks. Not the end of October, not Easter & not Whitsun Grin

Dinoteeth · 07/03/2022 08:25

@VonWeasel

I know someone (born abroad) who is actually a year younger than his birth certificate says. His mum said it was recorded incorrectly and I am sure that a mother would remember what year she gave birth!
I'm sure his mum is mixing years up, assuming she registered him as a baby / toddler surely she'd have noticed the year was wrong and had it corrected at the time.
sodastreamer · 07/03/2022 08:25

Errors were far more likely to be made in the more distant past when most births took place at home rather than in hospital/ midwife unit, and when there weren't so many checks and balances in place.

I actually had a family member (long dead now) who had a similar confusion and insisted that he wasn't certain whether he was born on the 22nd or 23rd of the month. But he was born in 1903, at home.

The OP's mum is 70; therefore it seems the OP would have been born in the 1970s at the earliest, and she also said it wasn't a home birth. While it's possible it was admin errors around registration, it seems far more likely to be an error of memory from her mum.

Onlyforcake · 07/03/2022 08:26

Bank holiday Monday? Or did they help out at church doing cleaning or such? Or a school thing maybe? Practice for a performance? Was it a CofE school? Children doing baptism or confirmation lessons?

StCharlotte · 07/03/2022 08:26

I'm still very resentful at having been born on a Saturday. I've been working solidly for 40 years with my only breaks being annual leave. Grrr.

Anyway I was at my brother's once and saw something on their kitchen notice board about my nephew's birthday being on 18th Dec. I had to remind her he was born on the 19th. "Was he really?" she replied.

Onlyforcake · 07/03/2022 08:27

Harvest festival practice?

changenametimeagain · 07/03/2022 08:27

Were you born in a different year when it was a Sunday? 😱

girlmom21 · 07/03/2022 08:28

@Cookerhood

It was still early October, folks. Not the end of October, not Easter & not Whitsun Grin
Oh maybe they were at midnight mass for Xmas?
Dinoteeth · 07/03/2022 08:28

I think the most logical explanation for Op is she was born just after midnight so in Mums mind was born on Sunday night even if it was early Monday morning.

Labour does something to your brain and makes you forget how sore, long or whatever it was.

diddl · 07/03/2022 08:30

Be interesting if you find your wristband Op!

I thought that you were given something from the hospital to give to the registrar.

So surely that would have the wrong date on & no one noticed or the registrar wrote it down wrongly & no one noticed.

AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair · 07/03/2022 08:35

Does anyone remember the Indian lady from the1970s who was a mathematician who could tell you the day of the week from the date. She wrote a maths book and was on Blue Peter

We need her now Smile

BoredBoredBoredB · 07/03/2022 08:40

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair

Does anyone remember the Indian lady from the1970s who was a mathematician who could tell you the day of the week from the date. She wrote a maths book and was on Blue Peter

We need her now Smile

Now you mention it, I do remember her from Blue Peter but I don’t think she could help.