Well today is Dave’s and Chassie’s birthdays and that means it’s only six months until Christmas. Both faithful readers of this blog know that I’ve referred to Dave and Chassie as “Irish Twins” (because they share the same birthday) in the past, but that’s not accurate and it’s technically wrong. I figure today is a good day to set the record straight. I know, some of you think I have too much time on my hands, but I figure this is something that I should get right….. don’t worry, it’ll still be my annual Happy Birthday wish to my kids.
To be technically correct, the phrase “Irish twins” describes two children born to the same mother within 12 months. So obviously, Dave and Chassie aren’t Irish twins — they were born on the same day, but not the same year, and not to the same mother. But there is a real term for that situation. If the date is the same but the year is different, they are “date-twins.” If they had been born on the same date and in the same year, they would be called “Astro-Twins.”
When people hear that my kids have the same birthday, most think that’s amazing…. but it really isn’t all that amazing. In one of my college math courses that turned out to be kind of heavy on statistics and probability, I first heard of something called the birthday paradox. Probability tells us that sometimes an event is more likely to occur than we think. For instance, how many people do you think it would take in a survey, on average, to find two people that share the same birthday? If you surveyed a random group of just 23 people, there is about a 50-50 chance that two of them will have the same birthday. Of course, the odds of them being married (to each other) increase the odds.
But enough of this probability stuff — The amazing part is that I have such an amazing duo as my kids.
I hope you continue to grow as two wonderful human beings. And don’t worry about what you’re called…. I just call you my son and daughter.
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