Half Birthdays

Many, like me, are new to plural marriage.  That is to say, we were not raised in the culture, and, as a result, we must decide what works - and what doesn't work - for our own respective families, without regard to tradition.  I have seen some strange customs that pop up in different families.  But hey, whatever works, right?

One strange custom that has popped up in my family has raised some eyebrows from onlookers.  And that is our custom of "half birthdays".

It seemed as if Martha and Temple were always having babies within six months of each other.  And when you have sets of kids from different moms that are roughly around the same age, it is like having  twins.  In fact, all of them have believed at some point that they really were twins.  Never mind that they were born months apart from different mothers.  In their minds, they are twins.

For instance, take Aidan and Sara.  They are five months apart.  One stands a whole head taller than the other.  But they insisted that they were twins, but it becomes very evident on birthdays that one is being recognized, and the other is somehow excluded.  How can you be twins and have different birthdays?  So they created something that they called "Half Birthdays".

It works like this - if it is Aidan's birthday (like it was a couple of days ago), it is Sara's "half birthday".  Aidan is the one who gets the cake and presents, and Aidan presents a small gift - a consolation prize, as it were - to the Sara.  Because it is her half birthday, not her birthday.  Five months later, when Sara has a birthday, she will present a half birthday gift to Aidan.

They were very insistent on it.  My kids watch out for each other.  It doesn't matter who their mother is, they are brothers and sisters.

So this tradition involved.  And I see the strange looks from relatives visiting our birthday parties when the birthday boy/ girl whips out a half birthday present.

And we have three sets of "twins".  Aidan and Sara.  Alex and Siobhan.  Avery and Israel.

Strange?  Yes.  But - it works for us.  And that's what is important.  I hope the tradition continues long after I am dead and gone.