Differences between Brits and Americans

What sports were they playing when school was not in session?

My American teen relatives seem to have sport going on all summer long, travelling teams and the like

My kids worked during the summers when school was out and there were no team sports taking up their time.

This is the same for my family. I have three teenage grandchildren who all play sports to a high level. They definitely don't have time to fit in a part-time job. However, they do have friends who don't play sports and have jobs.

Interesting - I have had the opposite impression because the American teens in my family are all into sports and play them with a real intensity (3x team practices plus weekend matches and often travel) so don't have any time for a job

I think it's far more common for teenagers to have jobs in the US, at least where I am, than in the UK. When I was a teenager in the UK, I only knew a couple of people in school who had part time jobs, and I don't get the impression that many of my daughter's friends back in the UK work, but here most teenagers seem to have some kind of part time job.

I think it's possible you are right.😀

I'm a bit of an Americanophile. So I do know where most of their major city's are. However, if you consider that the first recorded European who set foot on continental America sailed from Bristol you could expect them to know it (Columbus only made the Caribbean)

It’s really hard to get a job as a kid now. Very few independent businesses, lots of chains who want total flexibility (nights/ random day shifts). Public transport is a massive issue where I live too- as in there’s very little after 7 pm.

I get the impression there aren’t as many jobs available and the ones that are have a lot more competition from unemployed adults or those moving from industries with lots of leavers such as care work, etc.

We don't have a system like France, because we will not pay for it. They pay way more than us.

Everyone knows that medical care is limited by money whatever system you are under. It is why people pay for private care in the UK like physio, counsellors, tests. I get physio free at my local GP, but usually one or two sessions with exercises, and a referral for 6 physio sessions if it is something more serious. That is what the NHS will pay for unless you have something very serious - my partner has being seeing an NHS physio for years. So if you want more, you pay yourself.

Similarly you can wait and get a maximum of 8 sessions of counselling under the NHS if you meet the criteria, or you may only meet the criteria for a CBT course. There are weekly therapy groups for a year, but they have very strict criteria and long waiting lists. So most people if they need more pay privately.

No national health system will cover everything.

Maybe in the past it was like this? I guess I just don’t see that many high-school age kids working in restaurants or in retail at the moment.

Hah. I completely agree, but mention that on here and you'll get a barrage of posts yelling that's only because over diagnosis and unnecessary treatment of insured patients is what keeps US healthcare afloat.

I think kids in the UK do this too tho?!

We all wanted jobs at a cafe in town where they employed lots of teenagers. I remember at 13 going round the shops and market stalls asking if they needed any staff. This would have been late 90s, I guess you’d have called us working class / lower middle class.

My impression is that in the UK more working class kids combine education with part time work than do middle class kids. Just the sense I get though.

America also has a lot of kids that get part-time jobs at fast food places, gas stations or grocery stores, some would be as young as 14. This probably keeps them out of trouble and the money really isn’t that bad either. What you might call middle-class kids will be doing this too, it’s almost a rite of passage.

Our different education systems play into this also. For American teens it is important that they build their CVs for college applications through extra-curricular activities, volunteering, taking an active part in their communities and so on, so just 'hanging about' is perhaps seen as a wasted opportunity to be doing something more useful.

British universities don't really give a monkey's about extra-curricular (super-curricular, yes, but that's an entirely different thing), so British teenagers, when they are not studying, may not feel the same need to be doing something 'productive' with their spare time.

I think this is one of those things that varies massively across the country (which in itself is not good).

I’ve always had very fast referrals to a specialist for any random twinge or ailment I’ve mentioned to my GP – often when it’s something seemingly minor I thought I just might as well mention while I was there. A slightly muffled ear – straight to an ENT specialist within 6 weeks. A slight twinge in my abdomen – ultrasound investigation with gynaecology within a month. I don’t know how much this is my GP and how much is the area of the country.

dreaming I posted about the amazing concept of having a gynaecologist when I lived in the states. It’s definitely better to have preventative medicine and gynae care is woefully under par in the uk. I was really lucky to have good insurance tho.
The thing is, the NHS can only cover what it can afford to cover (and again I don’t know any British people who don’t understand that the medical care we get, particularly in terms of testing and prevention is restricted by cost. I’m pretty sure most uk people understand this.)
It’s still ethically preferable to profit making insurance companies having a say.
What we actually have in the uk is a National Illness Service. I have accepted that,for now, I’ll pay privately for extra screening/ specialists which I am fortunate to be able to do. This is in no way an ideal system. We’d be much better off with a system more like France and God knows why the uk can’t just copy theirs!?

I wonder if this sort of thing is particular to the UK

I was in Athens recently and also noticed that you didn’t see this type of teen – they were all really wholesome (perhaps there’s a better word for it) and polite.

One night (late on a Friday) there was a group of teens congregating in the small park space outside my window and being a bit noisy. I went out and asked them politely (in English!!) to keep the noise down. They were very apologetic and immediately lowered the noise and moved away.

On the way back from the airport in the UK, the teens sat vaping on the train just seemed a bit feral (again, probably a better word that escapes me) by comparison.

But it’s also expensive -the nhs is stretched beyond its means already.
If a political party wants to be voted out of Government then charging for healthcare would most likely do that.

Exactly, I don't know why people pretend it's a purely clinical decision when clearly it's a cost-benefit analysis. I was pregnant in the UK and was never told about GBS or other risks.

In the US it's standard for women to have an annual gyno exam where they examine your breasts and pelvic area, do a smear if required, and do a general health check too. There are so many posts on MN where people with serious gyno issues can't get a referral for months, it's enraging.

I'm not saying US health care is perfect, far from it. There's a reason why Luigi is a folk hero to many! But this approach to preventive care is I think a big difference between us.

I think that this is due to the bigger disparity in wealth in the US. I'm sure there are places where teens "loiter" but these are not areas that a middle class person might frequent necessarily. I feel that the wealthy are more cut off from the people living in poverty in the US, eg higher prevalence of gated communities, that sort of thing. I think in the UK there is more mingling - for want of a better word.

Just came across this article today in the Financial Times which might be of interest

The number of Americans applying for UK citizenship rose to the highest on record last year, with Donald Trump’s return to power and UK tax changes contributing to a surge of applications by US citizens in Britain.
Over 6,100 US citizens applied last year, the most since records began two decades ago and 26 per cent more than in 2023. Overall applications for UK citizenships were up by 6 per cent to 251,000, another record.
Applications by US citizens surged in the last quarter of 2024 in particular, rising 40 per cent year-on-year to about 1,700, according to data published by the Home Office.

It's also to do with the fact that there's less tolerance for drinking and general asbo (for want of a better word) behaviour by teens in the US. American teens are expected to be more responsible and law abiding than British teens are, if we're looking for cultural differences

This is really a thing. I’m always surprised at the tolerance toward antisocial behavior in England (and Ireland, I have to say) among teenagers. We just don’t tolerate groups of kids ‘loitering’ around in public.

Perfectly safe areas in the UK can look trashy because kids just gather around throwing litter everywhere and bothering/menacing passers-by and doing petty crime.

I don’t think they are dangerous exactly (there are teens in the US that will kill you if you look at them the wrong way, but you wouldn’t encounter them normally) it’s still unpleasant

I wanted to say it only became popular in the UK within the last 10 years but I've just realised all the many baby Imogens that suddenly appeared in my circle of acquaintances all at the same time are actually about 16 now! (I have heard of Imogen Heap but growing up the Katy book was my only reference. And my dad was in the army so I moved around a lot and met people with many different names!)