So 2020 was a terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad year, and one man was determined to not let his newborn son have any part of it. The dad, who shared his story on Reddit, explained that his baby boy was born an hour before midnight on December 31. So is it really so wrong for him to fudge the numbers and write that he was born in 2021 on his birth certificate?
The Redditor’s son was born at 11:05 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
AITA For arguing with the nurse about filling my son's birth certificate? https://t.co/fKP5srLwll pic.twitter.com/YdTNaqXWy2
— Am I the Asshole? (@AITA_reddit) January 2, 2021
“He’s healthy (thank God) and my family is doing alright,” he wrote in a since-deleted post that was shared on Twitter.
After his baby was born, “I was provided with a form by the nurse to fill out. I added the information needed ‘til I reached the time and date of birth,” he recalled.
That is when he had a thought — did his son really need to be born in this disastrous hellscape of a year?
“Instead of adding: Dec. 31. 2020/11:05 I decided to add Jan. 1st. 2021/12:05,” he wrote.
Could one measly hour really hurt?
Well, the nurse seemed to think so.
In fact, she stopped the new dad and “asked what I was doing.”
“She said that I filled the blanks with the false information and wanted me to refill the blanks with the ‘exact’ time and date of birth,” he continued.
The dad thought the nurse was making a big deal out of nothing.
It was unfair for his son to be tainted with 2020 when “he only lived in 2020 for just one hour.”
“Plus 2020 was a shitty year,” he added. “I'm glad it's finally over and I don't want my son to be associated with it. So adding 2021 would make more sense."
The nurse told the dad that what he was doing was forgery.
“And would cause a huge issue because it's not just an hour I was changing but the date as well,” he recalled.
He told her that he’s the dad “so I get a say and take full responsibility for anything that happens later.”
The nurse wasn’t having it. She told him that it doesn’t work that way and that they couldn’t accept the form because it continued false information.
“She got more people involved including the pediatrician who disrespected me by raising his voice,” he recalled.
But he again reminded them all that this was his kid and “I have the authority.”
Ultimately, the hospital took the form from the dad and wouldn’t let him fill it out.
His wife was ticked. She told him that he embarrassed her and when his family heard about what happened, they agreed that he was being a dummy.
Only his brother agreed with him and said “it was ridiculous for them to focus on a specific time and said that technically my son was born in 2021 because he'll have the whole year to live but only one hour of 2020.”
The dad also edited his post to add that he lost his father and close friend last year and is struggling financially after “leaving my job involuntarily.”
“And other shit happened as well,” he continued. “I hate 2020 and wish it never even existed.”
Most people agreed — this dad was off his rocker.
"He does realize that his child won't remember 2020 right? Like … at all?" one commenter on Twitter wrote. "Also his wife was pregnant with a chance that the kid would be born in 2020 you'd think he would've accepted it by now."
"My goodness. This man tried to commit an extremely serious crime that could jeopardize his son's ability to get a social security number, citizenships, housing, a job, own property, marry, write a will etc, and he's like 'waaaaah 2020 bad I have the authorit[y]!'" wrote another commenter.
"Dude. It just doesn’t work that way. You were falsifying information. They can’t 'just change it' because it’s a record of a birth," a third commenter agreed. "It’s not subjective. I get that you hated 2020, but you turned the last chance for your family’s 2020 joy into something crappy. [You're the asshole]."
Other 2020-haters thought he was sort of right.
"Honestly, I'll go against the flow here and say [Not the a–hole]. Few hour differences, +-1 day mistakes, daylight savings time mistakes, all that shit happens all the time when filling these kinds of forms," one commenter explained.
The person added that it's inaccurate info "by design, and the hospital staff made a huge deal of it. And I get the point of the parent. It is not uncommon for people to be linked with the year(s) they are born in. We are all the time talking about 80s, 90s kids. What makes you think that people born in 2020 won't be associated with the worst year in recent history in the future?"
Another commenter agreed. "I'm a nurse and I disagree so much with her. Ok he is wrong as hell ([you're the asshole] btw) but instead of just 'try to follow the protocols' as a nurse she should have offered him a talk, probably then she would find out that important people passed away in 2020 and could propose re-sign this."
A third person thought everyone sucked. "Some nurses will fudge times a little for personal reasons, i.e. a birth being the anniversary of a death or in the case of my MIL 'because a girl wouldn’t want a Halloween birthday' (she did, in fact, want a Halloween birthday and ignores what the certificate says).
"On the other hand, my dude likely forgot to explain his motivation to the nurse the same way he neglected to do in the post until he was torn apart in the comments," the person continued. "If he’d explained he wanted the date slightly altered bc of a loss in the family etc. he might have been allowed. RN could have been more understanding, listened and inquired more about the situation. Original Poster should definitely have used another method besides 'I am father. Respect. Authority. In charge!'”
It's understandable to some that parents might not want their baby joy to be "blemished" by 2020-awfulness, but breaking the law is probably not the way to make last year disappear. Plus, who's to say that 2021 will be any better? Better to take your baby's 2020 birth in stride — and perhaps apologize to the poor nurse who was only trying to do her job.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
