Notes on having three kids, all with birthdays the same week
My middle daughter's birthday is today, May 2. My youngest daughter was born on April 30. And my oldest daughter was born on April 27.
Some thoughts:
The birthdays themselves are more of a group thing for us. They look forward to them together. They plan them together. We can have one big family party. Some fraction of the individuality is probably lost. Not like having a twin, of course. But something.
There's a Christmas-in-April feel to it all. Birthday Season is A Thing. I have a hunch the girls will get together for their birthdays when they are adults.
There's an economy of scale, in that out-of-town relatives are, on the margin, more likely to come visit once for three birthdays than make three separate trips. This also aids #2.
You can take nostalgia-forward pictures like these:
I go an entire year without thinking about kid birthday parties, and I literally forget the details of planning a kid birthday party, which are not trivial.
Hand-me-down clothing is maximized. Every infant, toddler, preschooler, and older-kid age, for exactly the right weather season. "Liz will be 9 months soon, we can get out the blue sweater!"
It's hilarious when people find out. You can often see them doing the mental math. Maybe half will make some sort of joke about an August conception calendar. If they don't, we will. Our go-to has always been "well, that's when Congress is in recess" but I've always been partial to "we use the farmer's almanac" and the more daring "well, I go away with my college buddies to Saratoga every August."
I have wondered, in the age of modern birth control, whether sibling birthdays are more tightly grouped, because parents think about spacing in terms of years.
I will never in my bones truly believe that April 30 and May 2 are closer to each other than April 30 and April 27. It's not just the crossing of the month, it's that April only has 30 days.