The person whose birthday is earliest in the year is oldest

At the beginning of the year my Mom showed us kids when our birthdays were by marking them on the calender. My older brother's birthday was in January, my birthday was in February, and my younger sister's birthday was in March.

Based on this evidence I believed that everyone older than me, but younger than my brother, must have their birthday sometime between his January birthday and my February birthday. Similarly, someone younger than me, and older than my sister, had a birthday sometime between our birthdays. Those younger than my sister had birthdays later in the year.

I was so convinced this was true that I had even taken the effort to figure out how there could be so many people who were older than my brother, even though there were very few days in the year before his birthday. As I figured it, once all the possible birthdays had been used up, January birtdays started again (which would take a long time based on the time required for birthdays to advance one month). This conveniently explained how my parents could have birthdays in the summer- they were way older than me, so they were on a different birthday cycle. My siblings and I were just lucky to have birthdays so early in the cycle.

I found out this was not true after being invited to my neighbor friend's birthday party. I knew she was a year younger than me, but her party was in early February- before my Birthday!!! I tried to tell her she had her birthday wrong, but she wouldn't listen. Her mother had to break up the fight and explain how age and birthdays really worked.

thinking to hard (even at 5)

I never could understand why my brother was older than me when my birthday came first. My birthday is in April and his is in May, I just never understood that it mattered what year you were born in :0)

Anon

My cousin is a year older than me. My birthday is on January 16th, hers is January 24th. When I was little I used to think that because my birthday was before hers, that somehow that I was older than her. No matter how my mother explained, for years I believed I was older.

Carrie

Just by coincidence, the five children in my family were born throughout the year, with the oldest being born earliest in the year on down to the youngest being born latest in the year. So it was my belief that the oldest kids always had their birthdays first, and the youngest last. I thought if someone was born on December 31st - their parents couldn't have any more children!

Michael

My birthday is on the 20th of May and my dad's is on the 21st of May so I just couldn't figure out why he was older than me if I was born a day earlier... I was about 10 when I finally figured it out.

Anon

I used to believe that I was older than my brother because I was born in June and he was born in October

Anon

I used to believe that I was really older than my brother because my birthday's in May, & his is in June. I thought my parents just "made" him the older one because they were being mean to me.
It took a long time to figure THAT one out....

Maryk

My little sister use to get into arguments with me becuase I was born in November and she was born in July and so she thought that meant that she was older. She was really 2 years younger, but she didn't understand the concept of years.

Mecal

My slightly younger cousin came running up to me on his birthday proudly bragging that he was older than me now.

Len

i used to think that i was older than my dad because my birthday was before his

zara

My cousic used to think he was older than me because his birthday was in June and mine was in December.

//**...Ethan...**\\

When I was four years old I believed that I was the oldest in our family since it my birthday was first in the year. Holding on to that logic, my father was younger than me because my birthday was 6 april and his was 23 april. I can remember I got very upset when my parents tried to convince me that this wasnt true.

Marielle

As my birthday is in January and the first in the year for many family and friends, I thought I was the oldest.

Helen

My birthday is on August 8. My aunt, my father's sister was born on August 10. I could not for the life of me figure out how she was older than me. By my reasoning, if you were born on May 6th, you should be older than someone born January 20th. If you were born September 17th, then you should be younger than someone born June 9th.

Élistariel

when i was young i thought i was older than my older cousin cause my bday was on the 12th of the month and hers was on the 31st and i told her "I should be older than you but for some reason in our case i am not" and she believed me too!

Chita marie

I used to think that when I was a LADY I'd finally be allowed to be older than my sister (who's 2 years older than me). I was born in June and she was born in July, and I could never work out how she could be two years older, when My birthday was always before hers. Life's SOOOOOOO unfair!

Helen McBride

When I was about six, I was (and still am) very close with my cousin, who is two years older then me. Well my birthday is in June and hers in August. I would get so mad when i told her I WAS older because my birthday came first and she would tell me i was wrong

Meg

My older brother used to believe that he was younger than me 'cos his birthday was in March and mine was in January. He said it when he was 15!

Paul. W

My older brother's birthday is in June while mine is in April. When I was younger, I used to think that I should be older because my birthday was in an earlier month of the year than his.

Someone you don't know.

When I was a kid my good friend who was a couple years younger than me couldn't understand how I was older than her if her birthday was before mine. Her birthday was actually a couple of weeks before mine, she just didn't understand that I was born a couple of years before her.

N Volden