This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
My youngest unmarried is changing the date of his birthday. He will keep the real date for passports and legal stuff and, I presume, his real age!
Having extracted himself from a shared birthday with Jesus (look how well that turned out!) he would prefer to go solo on the day, basking in all the attention from his loved ones. As neither of us know what a proper birthday feels like, I hope it’s not a huge disappointment!
I don’t know if being a Christmas baby affects all of us so badly? I’m early January and loathe my birthday. One has this horrid feeling of guilt that you are making your friends and family buy more stuff straight after they’ve bankrupted themselves over Christmas. There’s also a false sense of jollity that one can’t shake off. You know – everyone has to be nice to you because it’s your birthday but their smiles don’t quite reach their eyes. You have to go along with this lying to make their awful performance better. No-one wins an Oscar! It’s carnage acting!
However, the fun bit… the part where we all give presents and jump out of a cupboard screaming “happy birthday” has been moved to May 27. Apparently, this year, he is not expecting presents from us. “Good.” I snorted. “It was only five months ago that you received some.” He isn’t expecting much of anything because he says it will take time for his friends to become accustomed to him being a ‘May man’ as opposed to a ‘December man’. He is giving them twelve months, then he expects organised action on his new birthday! He has already prepped some of his close friends. He has told them, “I appreciate you won’t take it seriously this month, but I am setting the foundations for you all to take me seriously next year!”
I heard him explaining to his sister why he has made this drastic move. He was “over it! December hasn’t been working for me for a while. I am still a Capricorn, obviously, older and cooler for my year but I just don’t like my birthday where it is!”
He flirted with being a June man but “I am clearly not a June birthday kind of guy” so eventually fixed the May date as being where he felt most comfortable. My oldest married is quite pleased as her bro’s new birthday nearly matches her hubby’s. They could share a party maybe? Neither looked too thrilled by this suggestion. Our son-in-law has reached the grand old age of thirty. Although I am sure he is very fond of his brother-in-law, he’s not so enamoured that he feels the need to share his precious party! I am pretty positive the youngest unmarried wouldn’t want to share his either.
I think the youngest unmarried has got something here. I toyed with changing the month forty odd years ago but did nothing. He has. Bravo my new May man! “Hope the grass is greener.” Oh it is!
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