That's the problem. In my code I test for that condition and don't do anything. But, in the datepicker control, the month and year displayed remains the same. I have the default date set to -50y. If I try to change the year to 1954, the displayed value remains as 1960. I placed an alert for the year value in the code and I see that the displayed year does change to 1954 but once I dismiss the alert it reverts to 1960. That is once the function is exited the original displayed value goes back to the original.
The effect is I can't change the month or year unless I select a date value first. The effect I'm trying to achieve is if the value has been set, then if I change the year or month in the datepicker, the value changes. The default behaviour of the datepicker is the value only changes if the day is selected.