AIBU to not consider 21 a milestone birthday?

[DragonsAndDaffs]

Do you consider 21 a milestone birthday?
DD is 21 soon, and many of her friends have already turned 21; none of them has had a party, and they have all just marked the birthday like any other... they all consider 18 the milestone coming-of-age birthday, and I would agree.

I'm old enough to remember my aunt turning 21 in 1969, before the voting age was lowered in 1970.

YANBU 21 is not a milestone
YABU 21 is still a milestone

This generation don’t have the same association with 21 as we had as it had been the age our parents came of age so they made it big for us. My kids are really not fussed by it (my dd turns 21 in a month or so).

I don’t. They are already an adult so what’s to celebrate?

It should be 18 or 21 here. But not both ! One or the other.

This.

Marked with jewellery for DD and cufflinks for DS.

Up until 1969, 21 was the age when you were officially an adult. It was changed to 18, but the 21 thing stuck.

It is a traditional milestone birthday, though that doesn't mean your DC have to see it that way or celebrate it differently to any other birthday.

I had a party for my 21st and not my 18th.

Definitely a milestone here. To me they are 18, 21 and 40, not any zero. Our DC each received (one will receive theirs next year), an heirloom (jewellery) and a significant gift on their 21st. None of them wanted parties.

It was when my friendship group were hitting that age, we had parties, bigger gifts etc (I'm 52)...there were lots of 21st related gifts available then too

Turning 21 is symbolic and definitely a mile stone not everything has to have a "purpose" i gave my children jewellery for their 21st..I have never heard of it not being celebrated.

What a joyless attitude.

Im also in my 50s, and i got 21 themed gifts.

I feel like 18 has replaced 21.

It's the age most people graduate from university. So like 18 it's often a birthday that coincides with a significant change in life and makes it still a milestone one.

I already hated all mention of my birthday well before 18 so didn't celebrate either 18 or 21 but at university all the 21sts were definitely seen as more significant than the 20ths

If it wasn’t a big deal you wouldn’t see 21 cards and 21 gifts in shops. Of course it’s a big birthday.

Some people will find any excuse to minimise birthday celebrations because they’re miserable and cba to do anything for friends and family that would require effort or cost beyond a token Facebook post.

YANBU. It was still considered a milestone birthday when I was 21 in the early 90s.
When my DS turned 21 a few years ago he thought it was odd when I mentioned it being a thing whereas he did celebrate 18 as a milestone. So I think times have changed.

You don’t have to treat it as milestone but you must know that it’s universally recognised as one!

With voting age going down and the age that children are toilet trained going up, we could soon have kids in nappies going to the polling booths.

You just need to look in a card/gift shop to see it is a milestone birthday. I don't see many cards or gifts with 20 or 22 on, I do see lots with 21.

DS couldn’t understand why we were excited by him turning 21. He couldn’t see what was different from being 20 apart from MW going up on his PT job!

He doesn’t do parties, so just went out with his GF and we had a meal with him on a different day. He is quite low maintenance 😀

Had a discussion with DH when FIL turned 65 and he had a big party as he treated it as milestone birthday. He was still working and wasn’t retiring. My parents who were older hadn’t treated 65 as special birthdays so I hadn’t seen it as a milestone birthday

Isn’t that what most people chose, to celebrate either 18 or 21? My parents offered me one big party and I chose to wait for my 21st. I went to loads of 21sts so I definitely wasn’t the only one!

With state pension age going up, 65 isn't a milestone birthday any more.

21 is probably the biggest milestone birthday among my own family and friends. I'm 44 but I would say 21 and 40 have been the most special birthdays for most.

Maybe comes second after 18. The others such as 40, 50 or 60 are just excuses made up to get you to spend money and overcelebrate.

I see it as a milestone.
Your milestones are 16, 18, 21 and then all the decades, 30th, 40th etc.

But it doesn’t mean anything to youngsters anymore. Saying key of the door to DS just gave rise to a blank look, no idea what we were talking about!