Worst Birthday Date

By means of a highly scientific study (namely: my own inexpert observation), I have determined the worst date to have your birthday on.  I know because one of my kids has it.  (But I'm not naming names.)

Now, I will concede that a leap year birthday could be rough in a lot of ways.  But at least it has cool factor and it'd be memorable.  Same goes for Christmas birthdays and the like.  Holiday ones can be hard for planning parties, I'm sure.  (I have another kid whose birthday is always over Spring Break.  Which means all his/her friends are out of town.  I imagine this problem would be much worse in the Christmas season.)  But for the purposes of this discussion, I'm talking about the worst day to have your birthday if you don't want everyone to forget it.  If you feel mortified by attention, then perhaps for you this would be the best possible date.  But for a little kid who doesn't understand why all his/her presents are always late, it's the worst.

It is...

Drum roll please...

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March 1st

Probably doesn't sound that bad at first glance, huh?  Now I shall defend my reasoning against all you naysayers.

I think ANY 1st of a month would be rough.  People tend to associate birthdays with a certain month.  When a birthday is on the first day of a certain month, people don't get any advance warning.  Normally it goes something like this, "Oh, it's August now.  G's birthday is this month.  I'll have to remember to send her lots of chocolate sometime soon."  But if a birthday is on the first day of the month, then by the time their "birthday month" rolls around, you're already kinda running late.  Definitely already too late to mail anything.  And let's be honest, there are plenty of us who suddenly wake up one day and realize it's not just the beginning of a new month, but a few days in.  Normally this isn't a huge problem.  As in, "Whoa!  It's already August 3rd?  When did that happen???  Good thing I have plenty of time to get all that chocolate in the mail for G.  I better get to the post office."  But when the beginning of a month is temporarily overlooked, any birthday in the first 5 days or so of a month is in peril, and a birthday on the 1st is probably already long gone.

So for example, when your doctor's office sends out birthday cards for everyone whose birthday is in March, they often don't send them until March has actually already started.  Which means that by the time that card arrives, a birthday that was on the 1st already seems like ancient history.  And if your family happens to have, say for example, 2 kids with birthdays in March, it means one kid's card is always late and the other kid's is always early.  I don't care personally, but I can tell in the world of childhood injustices, this does register with my kids.

But as far as firsts of a month goes, March is the worst.  This is because February is a short month.  Normally one might say, "Oh, it's July 29th.  Month's almost over and next month is August.  Better starting thinking about what kind of dark chocolate to get G."  But with a March 1st birthday, it goes more like this, "Today is Febuary 26th.  I should start thinking about [Claire/Scott/Kate]'s birthday sometime in the near future, but I've got some time."  But no.  No you don't have "some time."  You have 3 days.  (Assuming it's not a leap year, of course.  When it is, the calendar grants you one grace day to try to save your sorry butt.  Not that >>I<< would ever forget that my own child's birthday present still had to be wrapped and be really grateful for leap day or anything...)

See how that March 1st birthday will just sneak up on you?  Like a ninja.  A stealthy ninja birthday.

On the upside, maybe some day my kid will enjoy dragging out their birthday surprises over a couple weeks.  I think I would.

Anyone else have a ninja birthday?  Hate it?  Love it?  Discuss.