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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:

Themouseandthemat · 07/03/2022 09:55

I'm also wondering if it was registered on the wrong day.
My siblings are twins and have the same birthday but my dad is 100% convinced it was well after midnight when second twin was born. He's convinced it was 'smudged' so they were born on the same day.

I was always convinced I was born on a Thursday but it was actually a Friday. DH and my youngest were also born on a Friday. My eldest was almost born on a Friday but came on the Saturday morning.

boyblue · 07/03/2022 09:56

One of my kids was born at 5 past midnight. Bet it's something like that

sodastreamer · 07/03/2022 09:56

'It is much more likely that your mum would remember that its a sunday , rather than remembering the specific date numbers'

Really? There are 52 of any particular day of the week in a year, but only one specific date. Everyone I know can tell me when their birthday is, but not everyone knows the day of the week they happened to be born on.

diddl · 07/03/2022 09:59

@sodastreamer

'It is much more likely that your mum would remember that its a sunday , rather than remembering the specific date numbers'

I would also have thought that it's more likely to remember the date.

Branleuse · 07/03/2022 10:01

@sodastreamer

'It is much more likely that your mum would remember that its a sunday , rather than remembering the specific date numbers'

Yes but we remember it because its recorded. If it was recorded wrong then youd remember the wrong date. Im sure if your mum has been convinced it was a sunday, then it wasnt likely to be a monday

FluffyBooBoo · 07/03/2022 10:07

It's entirely possible that it was recorded wrongly.

A friend of mine was adopted, and her date of adoption is before her date of birth. (Clerical error)

diddl · 07/03/2022 10:08

"Yes but we remember it because its recorded. If it was recorded wrong then youd remember the wrong date."

But many of us remember the date because we know the date that we gave birth & that that same date is the one that was recorded on the BC.

sodastreamer · 07/03/2022 10:09

@Branleuse But the point is, there are more checks and balances with the documentation than with one person's memory; therefore it's one person misremembering is more likely than the legal paperwork being incorrect.

As many of us have said, errors can happen, but this was much more likely in the dim and distant past, not with a birth which took place in hospital/ midwife unit in the 1970s or 80s

Juno22 · 07/03/2022 10:17

If the date was recorded incorrectly then as it is the same as the date OP knows her birthday as, it would mean that everyone remembered the date incorrectly and the date was recorded incorrectly. Both dates are the same. That's almost impossible.

It would be different if the recorded date is different, but it's not. Everyone thinks the date is 'x' and the date on the birth certificate is 'x'. It's only the day that is being disputed. So almost certainly the date is right and the mum is remembering things wrongly.

Chakraleaf · 07/03/2022 10:17

One of mine was born 30seconds after midnight, so I always think she was born the day before her birth cert says!

Bananarice · 07/03/2022 10:21

Human error occurred and someone at the hospital wrote down the wrong date. Your parents were busy with life and trusted the professionals and didn't double check.

When ds3 was born the community midwife couldn't discharge me because the hospital discharge letter said I had a vaginal birth and a c-section. One baby can't be born twice and I only had one baby. I needed to get the discharge letter rectified.

Which the hospital midwife did. To be fair it was April 2020, with a new pandemic and under staffing issues. She apologised and said my husband can pick up the letter for me if, he brings a signed letter confirming I gave him permission to do so. He was then supposed to hand deliver the new letters to the community midwife center.

phishy · 07/03/2022 10:22

You weren't born on the wrong day (), your mum has a false memory. Questioning it is ridiculous. You seem to have a thing about being special, OP.

MimiDaisy11 · 07/03/2022 10:25

It’s weird there was no confusion before now if it’s a mistake. Surely your parents would be telling friends and relatives about the birth especially the story about going to the church. If they said you were born on Sunday wouldn’t any have taken note of the date then.

BoredBoredBoredB · 07/03/2022 10:28

@phishy

You weren't born on the wrong day (

), your mum has a false memory. Questioning it is ridiculous. You seem to have a thing about being special, OP.

Don’t we all?

loyihij · 07/03/2022 10:32

There is no need to worry, OP. Since you feel you are a Sunday's child, since you identify as a Sunday's child, it would be discriminatory for anyone to deny you are, literally, a Sunday's child.

Probably Parliament should legislate so you can change your birth certificate from your day-assigned-at-birth to your true day-of-birth (the one you identify as). (I hear the Scottish Parliament is already on the case.)

But anyway, some of us were born on no day of the week ... and some of us on several days. Non-septary people are valid too!

What a lot of nasty morrowphobia is evident on this thread! For shame!

MimiDaisy11 · 07/03/2022 10:45

Do people really not take any interest in their child’s DOB? Especially given OP says it was a straightforward birth over in a few hours. A few people have commented saying they’d be busy and so weeks later when registering would just trust the hospital paperwork but wouldn’t you already have in your head that your child was born on the 10th so when you saw the 11th on the form wouldn’t that throw up an issue?
I had a long birth that ended in emergency c-section at 5am but even in the hours after I confirmed birth date with my partner.

godmum56 · 07/03/2022 10:46

Mandela Effect.

sodastreamer · 07/03/2022 10:50

For the OP to have been celebrating the wrong birthday all her life, everyone in her family including her own mother would have had to not know the correct date she was born, along with the hospital giving incorrect information to the registrar.
It honestly seems way more likely that the Sunday thing imprinted on her mum's memory and then got passed on to the OP almost as some sort of folklore, as the day of the week seems to be such a big deal to her

Clarefromwork · 07/03/2022 10:52

I’m so shocked that so many people think it’s possible that the date was recorded incorrectly on the birth certificate and that’s the date everyone has been going by rather than knowing what the correct date would be !
I don’t think anyone needs to check the birth certificate to see what the date of your child’s birth is - you just know and other relatives would know too! So if it was incorrect on the birth certificate the op would be celebrating on a different date to that on the birth certificate but she has said the date on the certificate is when she celebrates her birthday.

So much more likely her mum has the day wrong.

loislovesstewie · 07/03/2022 10:54

I can remember the day, date and time my two were born; I didn't think it was so difficult!

amusedbush · 07/03/2022 10:57

I tend to agree with those suggesting it was recorded wrongly. My granny was still laid up in hospital after giving birth to my uncle in the 1960s when my grandad got half-pished at the pub, then went to register him. He gave him the weirdest, ugliest middle name you've ever heard (which my granny had already vetoed) and he misspelled his first name (not a massive deal but not what they had agreed, think Alan vs Allan).

I know that's slightly different to an incorrect DOB but mistakes happen.

AuxArmesCitoyens · 07/03/2022 11:00

I’m loving this thread, and all the batshit date suggestions

OP were you born in September 1752 when England changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar? That would explain the discrepancy.

justasoul · 07/03/2022 11:02

@Clarefromwork

I’m so shocked that so many people think it’s possible that the date was recorded incorrectly on the birth certificate and that’s the date everyone has been going by rather than knowing what the correct date would be ! I don’t think anyone needs to check the birth certificate to see what the date of your child’s birth is - you just know and other relatives would know too! So if it was incorrect on the birth certificate the op would be celebrating on a different date to that on the birth certificate but she has said the date on the certificate is when she celebrates her birthday.

So much more likely her mum has the day wrong.

DH has spent the last 13 years saying DD was born the day before she was… so relying on relatives - including the ones present at the actual birth, it seems - is also not foolproof!

Original poster

PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 11:03

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 😂

OP posts:

Original poster

PossiblyDreaming · 07/03/2022 11:04

*convinced THAT she’s got it somewhere. Not Talgarth, whatever that is.

OP posts:

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