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.

Maybe she’s one of those adults whose whole life has revolves around her children. Less about her own accomplishments and more experiences, more about vicarious ones through her kids. It’s difficult and a lot of people (especially women) find themselves in that situation - it’s a generational thing too maybe as it was more common in the 60s and 70s.
I get how it’s irritating but it’s just her thing.

Makes up for all the plays and concerts we had to sit through in the garden, usually a lot of giggling with the older ones trying to boss the little ones about.

She would have started as soon as she could toddle if she had gotten her own way.

That's exactly what I did at 41/2, I was left watching the pram outside the bakers and when Mum came out I'd gone, she went across the quite busy road, for the '50s, and found me sitting in the office of a bewildered Head into whose world I'd wandered and said I want to come to school. The put my name down very solemnly and it kept me happy!

It’s not trivial to the OP …

So many parents aim for a September birthday and get caught out by baby coming early!

As someone who took a while to conceive her summer born babies it amuses/ mildly irritates me people think they can aim for a particular month! Quite annoying to be going on about it 40 years later.

Honestly I don't think it matters in the long run.

My MIL who is dead now mentioned how my husband was a terrible sleeper every time we saw her. Bizarre.

Autumn as in autumn school term

There's a similar dynamic in DHs family where one set of cousins went private and the other didn't. It's still a thing even though they are in late 30s! So tedious!

My MIL mentions that peppers repeat on her and she has been everywhere and can’t find any black trousers. There must have been some black trousers in the UK in the last 20 years. I have never looked, to be fair.

I first thought you meant you’d had 28 babies that were born in August!!

Careful in case that's why she's still annoyed!

We have the DH was a terrible sleeper too. That bothers me less somehow. Our child is born in March so on neither end of the school year spectrum.

There was no "option to defer" when I was 5 in August 19**, certainly did me no harm.

Sounds like it's not just the peppers that are repeating...

Why does it bother her?

Some adults… not limited to MiL’s.

My dad tells a story, repeatedly, about me never making him breakfast because ‘she doesn't eat breakfast’.

I said it once, on holiday, 40 years ago!

As she ages, you will hear this more and more. You'll be like that one day. Not worth a quarrel or offending a mother who clearly loves her son, is it?

I don’t know why people make such a fuss about this. Bright kids will always do well. One of only two in our class to pass the grammar school exam was an August baby - and the girl who got the best GCSEs in my year (good enough to make the local paper) was born on 31 August! She got nine As and A stars and eventually went to Cambridge. I can’t believe being born a day later and therefore starting school a year later would have changed anything!

I've yet to meet a person who isn't weird in one way or another. I think who you are complaining about is usually more significant than why you are complaining at this level of pettiness.

my mum actually does this about my brother all the time..

in Scotland the cut off is end of February..my brother was born in March so missed that year's intake.. he's 35 now..we STILL hear about it. especially cos I was born in February and made it haha

OP its annoying but just ignore it..its your MILs own issues and hangups about life

My grandpa loves telling me whenever it comes what repeats on him and I really hate that phrase! I bought some black wide legged trousers at M&S a couple of years ago, so maybe I helped cause the shortage 😂

I don’t want to start an argument about it. It’s clearly a minor issue and while I might get a bit more blunt in pointing out she’s said that before, I won’t be rude to her. I started a thread because it’s free to do, I had five minutes spare time and I wondered if she was being annoying always dragging it up or if I was being a huge grump for being annoyed with it. Probably a bit from column A and a bit from column B.

I couldn't get wound up about this. There must be more about her that you don't like because this seems so trivial.

Said with a smile next time she brings it up:

’Margaret I absolutely love you, but if we have to hear this born in August lark one more time, I am going to have to… divorce your son/buy some ears plugs/start putting a pound in a jar..’.
With a smile and a laugh and breeze out of the room.
my MIL bought my child at Tonies toy once, and asked about whether he was using or not repeatedly for a year. So one day I poured her a glass of Prosecco and said the above sentence with a smile and it worked perfectly. Even if she doesn’t laugh, you’ve got your point across.

Agreed, from another August 22 baby. (Happy birthday to us for next week!)

I was desperate to start school and my parents told me I could start "when I was five". The day I turned five I was devastated to learn that I couldn't actually start for another fortnight 😂