Do child poors get birthday parties?

[Vega]

How is it that England managed to go from depressing to charming while losing their empire in the process?

Normally I would correct one and refer to it as the United Kingdom, but in this case just using England is fitting.

When I think of the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish I think of fun, drunk people.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

This thread is really remarkably embarrassing.

Brighten up, buttercup!

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

How is it that England managed to go from depressing to charming while losing their empire in the process?

When I think of the ... Northern Irish I think of fun, drunk people.

um

[politicus]

How is it that England managed to go from depressing to charming while losing their empire in the process?

When I think of the ... Northern Irish I think of fun, drunk people.

um

[memphis]

Sweet Sixteen is a Yankee custom. It's not a thing here. At all.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Sweet Sixteen is a Yankee custom. It's not a thing here. At all.

See?  Looks how much we are learning here.  I would think that the landed gentry of the South would be the MOST likely to throw Princess Cindy-Sue a big Sweet Sixteen. 

[Panda Express]

Sweet Sixteen is a Yankee custom. It's not a thing here. At all.

It is, but it's called a "wedding" instead.

[traininthedistance]

Don't forget about quinceañeras, which are often quite lavish affairs.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Here, sweet sixteen is when your parents dial back the presents and start grumbling about part time jobs.

[memphis]

Don't forget about quinceañeras, which are often quite lavish affairs.

Except that they are not for sixteen year olds. You may as well call a Bar Mitzvah a sweet sixteen party.

[traininthedistance]

Don't forget about quinceañeras, which are often quite lavish affairs.

Except that they are not for sixteen year olds. You may as well call a Bar Mitzvah a sweet sixteen party.

... and that one-year difference makes it so totally different and not analagous whatsoever.  And certainly invalidates the relevance these parties have to HockeyDude's original, broader question, too!

[memphis]

Don't forget about quinceañeras, which are often quite lavish affairs.

Except that they are not for sixteen year olds. You may as well call a Bar Mitzvah a sweet sixteen party.

... and that one-year difference makes it so totally different and not analagous whatsoever.  And certainly invalidates the relevance these parties have to HockeyDude's original, broader question, too!

Uh, they have things in common, sure,  but if you think that a Quinceñera is just a glammed out Sweet Sixteen party, you don't know jack about them.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Nobody I know or anyone they know had a sweet sixteen birthday party.

My sixteenth birthday was spent getting a slight buzz in a hotel room we rented.  Paid for with money we earned working.  We also went swimming and played croquet and bocce ball.  My birthday present was having whatever I wanted for dinner and probably a gift card.

And knowing me... the dinner was burgers on the grill, french fries, fresh pineapple...and white birthday cake with white frosting and peppermint bonbon ice cream.

[memphis]

Snowguy, whenever Garrison Keillor retires, it is imperative that you are the one who replaces him.

[muon2]

Don't forget about quinceañeras, which are often quite lavish affairs.

Except that they are not for sixteen year olds. You may as well call a Bar Mitzvah a sweet sixteen party.

Speaking as someone who spent 8 years at a Jewish university and then moved to a heavily Mexican neighborhood, I would tend to agree that there are lots of similarities with a Quinceñera and a Bar Mitzvah, despite the difference in age and gender.

Growing up in a middle class St Paul suburb I didn't see anything particularly special with Sweet Sixteen in the 1970's other than the use of the title, sometimes the party was a bit bigger, but often not. Neither of my kids were particularly interested making any more of a deal about their 16th birthday than their 15th or 17th ones.

[Gustaf]

Al is correct about this thread. Lol. I always find it hard to grasp just how segregated the US is. While I do have a very privileged background I had plenty of poor friends growing up. And of course they have birthday parties. They just spend less on them.

[dead0man]

It's not shocking how little certain posters know about poor people.  Sad, but not shocking.  It does explain the patronizing attitudes towards them though.

[Platypus]

The only kids who had extravaganzas when I was little were the Jewish and Greek kids, although I think they've spread more widely in the following years.

[Foucaulf]

Just wondering this.  I remember myself and all my Asian suburban friends getting slapped for our infelicities through age 10.  Thinking back, it truly does seem to be a very Asian and suburban thing.

[Talleyrand]

Just wondering this.  I remember myself and all my Asian suburban friends getting slapped for our infelicities through age 10.  Thinking back, it truly does seem to be a very Asian and suburban thing.

Yeah, I can definitely identify with this. My parents would slap (not spank) me for any show of disrespect, etc. well into middle school and on (rare) occasions high school. I've always been curious if this is something unique to the Asian diaspora.

[patrick1]

I got my arse kicked when I was younger. I'm white but blue collar upbringing.  My parents were hit, like their parents before them etc etc.

[Foucaulf]

Answers I am expecting in this thread's new iteration:

Yes, white people occasionally act like normal humans.

I grew up in an upper middle-class suburban area and almost no boys had beatings after age 12 or so (or if they did, they certainly weren't facilitated by their parents). Only popular girls had that.

I think people of all races have beatings for their young children. (Unless the parents are simply devoid of class).

It's not shocking how little certain posters know about white people.  Sad, but not shocking.  It does explain the patronizing attitudes towards them though.

In all seriousness, I'm not sure of any other communities that talk about beatings the same way Asians do. I got off lucky, but my parents did hit out of stress sometimes. What conversations I've had with others is that it's something that marks you and something for which you have to man up; it does poison your perceptions of those who raised you.

[Beet]

Just wondering this.  I remember myself and all my Asian suburban friends getting slapped for our infelicities through age 10.  Thinking back, it truly does seem to be a very Asian and suburban thing.

Yeah, I can definitely identify with this. My parents would slap (not spank) me for any show of disrespect, etc. well into middle school and on (rare) occasions high school. I've always been curious if this is something unique to the Asian diaspora.

I was an Asian suburban kid and I can't imagine being hit growing up. Then again, given how much of my life I've spent on this site, maybe there really is something to it.

[Хahar 🤔]

Just wondering this.  I remember myself and all my Asian suburban friends getting slapped for our infelicities through age 10.  Thinking back, it truly does seem to be a very Asian and suburban thing.

It has always confused me that white children apparently don't.

[checkers]

I'm white and I was never hit growing up. From what I remember about my (white) friends, some parents were absolutely horrified by the idea, while others did spank their children. My mum was hit growing up (and beyond a light spank) so I think there is a generational gap there. I think class might also play a role - my mum grew up in a working class household and they were under a lot of financial stress, but she was then university educated and I grew up middle class, etc. Though I don't want to generalise that all working class people hit their kids or anything.