Why do British people (at least on MN!) Have such issues with adults celebrating birthdays?

I’ve always loved my birthday and make a big deal of it, live celebrating it as much as possible. In my early 20’s I was assured that as I got older that would change and I wouldn’t want to think about it. I turned 47 recently and those people were WRONG! I still love celebrating and already started thinking about my 50th birthday party.

There's definitely been a few birthdayzillas on here. Wasn't there a thread recently where somebody was complaining that despite her partner giving her a lovely meal and presents, she was upset because he didn't post about her birthday on social media?

Only if all the money goes into a joint pot. DP (civil partnership), and me only have a joint account for household bills, all other money is kept in our separate accounts, so we use our own money to buy each other gifts.

I've never noticed this. If anything I feel a bit left out at times as I don't really do much myself with friends....

Are you new here? 😆

Amen to that. 🎉🎉

I don't think it's the celebrating of a birthday that people have a problem with, it's birthday people expectations, e,g., birthday week, month, even year. Someone got upset because sil had an event the week before her birthday, a woman's husband celebrated his birthday for four days and she did most of the work. Go ahead, celebrate your birthday. Just don't make it burdensome for everyone else.

Yeah, but...we like unwrapping stuff. We usually just do chocolates and savoury treats we know the other likes and wrap them up. Does sound daft when you think about it, but, I don't know, there's something about having stuff to open. Even if it is just a bar of fruit 'n' nut...

No friends.....
(No socialising with family, work colleagues , neighbours and definitely not school mums! )

Any excuse to celebrate. Some MNers seemed to be dedicated to misery: no fun, no heating, no drinking...Lot of killjoys.

I’m a bit baffled 😯 everyone I know celebrates their birthdays with family / friends maybe a gathering at home or a day out or a meal out . I thought everyone did it maybe I’m odd and the people I know are odd 😂😂

MN doesn’t have a problem with it. Some individuals do. We love to celebrate-all our extended adult family members do too.

I think it's a class thing. Working class people have always been more into a good knees-up and celebrations generally. I have some middle class friends and birthdays and Christmas are always quite restrained and low-key.
Whereas my family happily dress up as elves and Christmas trees and get drunk 😀

I think it's a class thing. Working class people have always been more into a good knees-up and celebrations generally. I have some middle class friends and birthdays and Christmas are always quite restrained and low-key.
Whereas my family happily dress up as elves and Christmas trees and get drunk 😀

I think it's a class thing. Working class people have always been more into a good knees-up and celebrations generally. I have some middle class friends and birthdays and Christmas are always quite restrained and low-key.
Whereas my family happily dress up as elves and Christmas trees and get drunk 😀

I think it's a class thing. Working class people have always been more into a good knees-up and celebrations generally. I have some middle class friends and birthdays and Christmas are always quite restrained and low-key.
Whereas my family happily dress up as elves and Christmas trees and get drunk 😀

I think it's a class thing. Working class people have always been more into a good knees-up and celebrations generally. I have some middle class friends and birthdays and Christmas are always quite restrained and low-key.
Whereas my family happily dress up as elves and Christmas trees and get drunk 😀

Life's too short to be bloody miserable. Celebrate, don't celebrate, but don't put a downer on those that do celebrate.

It’s an online forum, this means the percentage of people who are friendless or poor communicators will be higher than in the general population.

People getting angry about adults celebrating birthdays, and claiming having a birthday party makes you an egomaniacal monster, is something I only ever see on Mumsnet. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever encountered that attitude in real life.

Yeah I dont get it either. Birthdays are yours, not shared like xmas

For some of us it is. I'd love to be the centre of attention on my birthday but alas, that's never going to happen.

All fo this, celebrating is great it is additional drama nd game playing people add on top of it is the issue

I will attend something if I’m free. I’ll buy a gift for someone if I see something that’s perfect for them. What I’m not going to do is to buy something that’s not perfect for someone just for the sake of buying a present. What a waste of money and the world’s resources. I will also not be made to feel guilty about not attending something if I have something else more important
on.

If you’re an adult you can get over not having a present or not having someone there.

This. 80 years ago they’d have enjoyed competitively scrubbing their steps with rollers in hair.

Yes this is exactly it.

Love any excuse for a party and love to celebrate friends' birthdays, no issue with that at all. But as adults the onus is on you if you want to celebrate it, and if you want people to remember.

Adults who insist that they can only celebrate their birthday ON THE DAY and expect everyone to ringfence it are even worse. Just celebrate the next weekend if people have commitments rather than stamping your foot about not being the priority.