16 - Significant Birthday?

[scaredfriend]

Do you consider 16 (in the UK) to be a significant birthday? My niece turns 16 next month and my other sibling (not the parent of the birthday girl) messaged me earlier to ask what I’m getting DN with it being a significant birthday.

I hadn’t really considered anything special as I didn’t think 16 was a milestone birthday. I know ‘sweet sixteen’ is a thing in the US but has it crept over here too?

If so, what sort of things to people gift that are more special than normal? As well as DN (budget usually around £35), my best friend’s daughter is turning 16 the month after (we normally spend about £15) so any ideas much appreciated. Neither girl is likely to appreciate jewellery etc.

It's always been a significant birthday here hasn't it?

Not as big as 18 but bigger than say 15!

Definitely always been a significant birthday here, long before the US “sweet 16” thing. I remember my cousin’s one in
the 1970s. It was a big deal - the time when most people left school and started work.

Not really, 18 is now. Especially as you cannot leave school at 16 in the way you could say 20-30 years ago, and you cannot marry at 16 now.

No, 18, 21 and then the new decades

I would say this too (with a DD who is about to turn 18)

Not really. Not in the 'special presents' category anyway, we save that for 18 and 21. Even when I was 16 back in the 80s, we didn't treat it as particularly special.

Ha ha - a mixed bag of answers there. Maybe there is regional variance? I’m in my 40s and it definitely wasn’t a thing when I was a teen. 18 was the big birthday, 17 was usually marked with driving lesson vouchers / fluffy dice / other car accessories. 21 was sort of a big birthday but less so than 18.

DD turned 16 a few months ago. It’s a “thing” to the extent that she can now legally do a few things she couldn’t do before. It’s perhaps more of a celebration than some other birthdays as she & most of her friends are being allowed more independence, to stay out later, it is accepted that there will be some drinking and the parties they are going to tend to be mixed rather than just girls or just boys. Many of them are off to Reading Festival in the summer and are having that or a contribution to it as their birthday present and so are consequently having a more expensive present than they have had in previous years.
As a PP has said, as they can’t leave school, it’s not the milestone it used to be.

I’m in Scotland and I think it’s still widely considered a big birthday here.

You can in Scotland where turning 16 is definitely a big birthday.

It seems to be a thing in the UK now. I’m nearly fifty. I only noticed ‘sweet 16’ being celebrated over here maybe in the last ten years. To me it’s always been 18, 21 and then the decades.

And I’ve kids that are nearly thirty.

Of course it is! When I turned 16 I got a significant present. 18 was bigger though.

Sweet 16 makes me stomach turn it’s seems to me it’s about celebrating legal age of consent …..

Quite!