Every year on my husband's birthday his mother calls at the crack of dawn (ie: 6 or 7am) to wish him happy birthday. They then spend about 15-20 minutes on the phone while he opens his gift from them, ooohs and aaaahs, and catches up on gossip. This inevitably means that EVERY year she is the first person to wish him a happy birthday and by the time he has got through the phone call with her the moment has sort of deflated a bit. And then his sister will call and it will be the same thing again. By the time he gets off the phone he only has a few minutes left before he has to get ready for work.
I have mentioned this to him and he replies that that is just how it is done in his family - they love being the first to call. My feeling is that that was all very well when they were his nuclear family and he was at boarding school but now we are his nuclear family and we should be the first ones to wish him happy birthday. It is tricky to raise this with him as I don't want to ruin his birthday by having a fight. We had a terrible fight one year about it and I don't want a repeat. I have thought about raising it the night before - saying that would be mind letting us be the first to wish him happy birthday - but each year, like a fool, I hope that maybe his mum will be a bit more considerate and not steal the moment from me.
I have had to resort to getting up earlier and earlier (and inevitably waking him up earlier and earlier) to beat them to it. I have thought about turning the phone off but feel like that would be deceitful.
This year was the first year that we have a daughter together and I got up early to make him breakfast and put her in her "I Love Daddy" t-shirt. Just as we are going through to wake him the phone rings - it is his Mum. I asked him not to answer, and he didn't, but then he made sure he called them back as soon as he had opened his presents from us and then spent the rest of the morning on the phone.
In fairness, I should point out that his family all live overseas so they don't catch up a whole lot (although they do talk on the phone 1-2 times a week). There is a 12 hour time difference between here and there so they could wait a little later to call or alternatively call in the evening or when he is at work.
So what do you say girls? Am I being unreasonable, petty, or jealous to expect them not to call so early or at least make their phone calls short so we can actually enjoy the birthday morning together as a family?