I will never understand why people want to double up on “special days.” If you could have a 4th of July party and a birthday party on two different days, why combine them into one day? I get that it’s difficult to get people to show up for one special event, let alone two, but as long as they’re spaced apart in a reasonable way, there’s no reason you should have to do a halfhearted birthday celebration because of an unrelated event. I don’t care how old you are; if your birthday is consistently eclipsed by some other holiday or by uncaring family members, it can get you down.
The teenager in this story got his birthday overshadowed by the gender reveal of his baby sibling. That’s bad on its own, but the fact that his mom gave him the gender reveal in place of an actual gift is wild.