to wish MIL would stop going on about DH’s August birthday

[horchatatresleches]

Sounds petty but it’s literally every time we see each other. DH was due in September but ended up arriving at the end of August. MIL is clearly bothered by this and somehow it comes up in conversation every time we see her. It will be that her great-niece won star of the week and do you know she was born in September, or I ran into your school friend Will who was born in September and that’s a year older than you when you started school, or most recently now our godson who has just turned four is starting school and how young he’ll be in the year just like DH, or any number of other ways of shoehorning in DH’s birthday. He’s now almost 40 years old. He did well at school, enjoyed it, played on the first teams for cricket and rugby and is doing well as an adult. He has a great group of school friends. I get that at the time it must have been disappointing to go from a child who would be Autumn born to a child who is late Summer born, but not to the point where almost forty years on.

This seems a very trivial thing to be so irritated by that it needs a thread.

I'm an August baby and have an August granddaughter. I was concerned for her being the youngest in her class and she did initially struggle and had a LSA in some classes. However, with loving support in and out of school she coped admirably. We always played educational games - matching cards, memory games - etc, encouraged and practiced writing and reading with her to help her development. She has just graduated with a BSc honours 2.1, so proud.

Surely a “why does this still bother you 40 years later?” should shut her up.

Did she not have to option to defer?
My birthday is the end of August and I didn't start school til January along with the other summer borns. Also approaching 40.

Hey what’s wrong with being born in August? 🤔 🤣🤣

It is just something she says to relate to people/family so she is still in the loop, she loves her son and likes talking about him. Honestly apart from annoying you what harm is she doing ?

But she’s not acting proud. She almost acts like DH got it wrong on his first day of life by showing up at the wrong time. It’s not done in a ‘you overcame the disadvantages that can accompany being summer born’ way (though that would be weird too).

About once a month.

My eldest missed her start for school by a week i.was absolutely raging start months are different in Scotland and I still harp on about it 20 odd years later 😀

She isn't blaming him you are purposely misunderstanding her, all she is saying if he came a month later he wouldn't have started school, it doesn't mean anything.

DH (who is less patient than me) usually just says that it really doesn’t matter, sometimes fairly bluntly, and she just trails off, but still brings it up next time. Sometimes he points out that he wouldn’t have met me if he’d have been in the year below because we met through his school friend. I might say something like that next time though.

Why does it bother you?

It is weird. My DS, now in his early twenties, was due in January and born in December. It's completely irrelevant now.

Probably because it’s quite irritating.

Just turn it in to a game. Place bets on how long it will be before she mentions it and the person closer to the time is the winner.

We play guess how late my brother will turn up to special events.

My summer born dd went to university and breezed through school... Is it something seen as a disadvantage?? How odd..

My husband is 60 & MIL still hasn't got over the fact that he didn't go to Grammar school.

"It was fixed, we didn't know the right people".

Must have not been fixed the year I got in then!

My mum repeats stories we all probably have stories or repeat things, family usually overlook it unless it is your husbands mother of course she is fair game and little things that should or could be ignored end up on the Internet and blown out of proportion.

Yeah that's pretty weird tbh.

I understand her bringing it up in conversations about children starting school or similar, but not finding a way to shoehorn it into every conversation.

Plus I imagine having an August birthday is actually pretty nice as an adult so it's only the early school years and when your friends turn 17 and 18 before you that it's a slight disadvantage. After that it's all even, surely?

Yep, he can often use the August bank holiday weekend to his advantage so it’s great for a birthday getaway long weekend as an adult!

He must have been very early to be born at the end of August rather than in the autumn 😉. Autumn is usually around the 23rd September (+ or - a couple of days) so not sure why it's so huge (still) to your MIL.....

I'm not convinced you know what online forums are for.