Do You Know?

Little me

Do you know the exact time you were born?

I don't, and I'm wondering if I'm in the minority on this. I've never felt that this was really important information I needed to know about myself.  I do know that many moms can tell you the exact moment their child was born.  They know this information like they know their own birthday! Yet it's something I don't know about myself.

In fact, up until yesterday, I didn't even remember the exact time of my own son's birth. I knew of the approximate time....late morning...but that's it.

Where did this curiosity come from? I was teaching my kids about text structures and we were talking about chronological order. To help them remember that chronological order is all about time and dates, I told them to draw a clock in their notebook along with the date of their birthday and the time of their birth...if they knew it. To my astonishment, a lot of them knew and they thought it was strange that I didn't.

Hmmm.....

Why is that? Why don't I know the time of my birth? Is it because back then, when I was born in Jamaica , in 1974, there weren't any smart phones and social media...technology...to record such a special event? Perhaps it's because my mom was too exhausted after laboring to push me out into the world that that was the last thing on her mind? Perhaps indeed. After a little investigation, talking to my mom and even looking at my birth certificate (it doesn't list the time of birth!), we weren't any closer to an answer. My mom feels badly that she could not help me solve this mystery. I don't want her to feel bad. Not being able to provide me with this information doesn't in any way make her less of the awesome mother she is.

Because I don't know my birth time makes me wonder if that's why it wasn't important for me to know Buddy Roller's.  I saw the excitement in my students' eyes when they shared their birth times with me, and it made me realize that Buddy Roller should at least be given the option to determine if it's important to him.

While I will never forget the events surrounding the day Buddy Roller was born, I am now going to make it a priority to remember the exact time of his birth and make sure he knows it too.  And it was easy to find. It's on his birth certificate, and it's shown on the little blue card I received in the hospital that day more than five years ago.  

11:18 a.m. 

Buddy Roller was born at exactly 11:18 a.m. on a Friday morning.  So every year, starting this year, on August 21, at exactly 11:18 a.m., we can remember the significance of that special day back in 2009.

Do you know the exact time you were born?