Why does my 3 year old think every day is her birthday ???

[mummyloveslucy]

My daughter is 3 years and 4 months and keeps thinking it's her birthday. She keeps asking for birthday cake with pink icing and asking where her party is.
Why does she think it's always her birthday? I have explained that she only gets one a year and that she has to wait a long time for her next one. I don't think she understands this. We went to her friends birthday party recently, and when they sany happy birthday to .... She shouted out "No, Mee". Should I just ignore her talk of birthdays or humor her by singing it to her, giving her cake etc ?.

my dd went through this, just after her third birthday, she was three in march, I just kept reminding her that she had had her birthday. Much better now - but she still says to friends and me - you're my friend - you can come to my party.

I don't make a big thing of it - but just remind her and if we go to a party - i just keep repeating - it's so and so's party today.

My daughter was also 3 in march. They are funny arn't they?
We took her on a steam train for fathers day and she told the conductor it was her birthday, he was in a rush so we couldn't explain. He then made an anouncement for her for Thomas the tank engine saying Happy birthday to lucy who's 3 today.
She looked so pleased with herself and was delighted with her message. We felt a bit though.

LOL at Thomas story.

Ah, I think it's incredibly sweet that they are so excited. It won't last. It's a lovely age, I think. Very innocent and yet much more aware of things like birthdays.
A year is forever in 3 year old time. They can't remember last year, let alone imagine all that time again.

This thread made me ! My Ds who was 3 at the end of May is also the same. I think that since his birthday there's been lots of other birthdays (nct friends, classmates at nursery etc) which has kept the idea in his head. He keeps saying "tomorrow it will be my birthday" as if to make it ok that today is someone else's birthday!!
I agree that they don't really have any concept of time, anything that happened in the past happened yesterday even though it might have been weeks ago!

Oh I love all those 3-year-old pretend birthdays.

It can be a birthday every day! Make a small batch of fairy cakes or muffins, stick some candles in and do icing - all this with the 3-year-old's help. Have some old wrapping paper around the place, and wrap up some toys they've not seen for a week or two.

happy sigh

What's not to love about it?

(and if you're feeling guilty about the cakes, then just squeeze a fish oil capsule or two into the mix. Noone will taste it but voila! clear nutritional benefits!)

My DS also 3yrs has his birthday on Christmas Eve so it's very difficult to make it his special day and he has nothing like Christmas to look forward to for a whole year. I try to compensate by making my birthday (in April) special for him to.

to my dd who's 3 everything in the past is 'yesterday' and everything in the future is 'in the morning'.

they don't have any concept of time at that age.

it helps with dd to tell her what big events are coming next.... eg she knows it's ds's birthday, then dp's birthday, then xmas, then her birthday again. she does ask daily if it's ds's birthday yet but it's more bearable than asking everyday if she's getting presents today

DS2 does this. He got upset yesterday because it was his uncle's birthday, not his. He's nearly 2.6 and suggests he can have things "for my birfdee".

dd has her xmas list and birthday list already compiled