FYI: For younger kids, it's common for the parents to pay for everything. I remember when I was in Junior High School (my allowance wasn't enough to treat my friends at a resto), I invited a few friends to our house and my Mom cooked all the food and ordered a cake and we just had fun eating and talking there. :-D
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One close friend then moved to USA and she started working there. On her birthday, she brought a cake to her workplace. Her boss said to her, "Poor you! Why did you bring a cake on YOUR birthday? We're the ones who're supposed to treat you on your special day."
She was stunned. She had no idea that it's not common for people there to treat others on their birthdays. In fact, it's very common for your friends to chip in some money and pay for your dinner at your fave restaurant.
Another friend moved to USA, but he wants to keep the Indonesian birthday treat tradition, so the American friends were so happy to be treated by this guy on his last birthday ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
What's the custom like in your country when it comes to birthday treats?
P.S. I'm not really big on birthdays. With my family, usually we just either dined out in a restaurant or ordered some food to eat together at home and we'd also order a cake from a deli. :-D Here in Finland oftentimes MIL buys me a cake and we'd eat it together. :-D
I guess the Australian tradition is that your family or close friends organise some kind of celebration for you, and that they pay for it. I had the same reaction as your friend's US colleagues - that the birthday girl or boy is supposed to be the one getting treated!!
ReplyDeleteTHANKS for sharing the tradition in Oz, Katriina. :-))) My bro went out with some colleagues the other day to treat them dinner ha ha ha ha ha...
DeleteIn Rhodesia kids at school would bring others cake and treats on their birthday. So yes, I'd find it weird if others gave me a treat because it was my burthday. Nice idea though... :-)
ReplyDeleteIn our family it was always mom making a cake and when I wqas very young I had friends around for birthday parties. When I got older we'd go get a take away or some treat food. We never went out to eat. My husband's family didn't celebrate birthdays. He's never had a cake or anything special... till I married him! :-)
Now we do "pick your meal" for birthdays - each person gets to choose what they most want.
Ohhhh...so it's similar in Rhodesia, too, eh? My Mom's a great cook, but she's not a cake person (I mean she prefers cooking meals rather than baking cakes hi hi...).
DeleteAh, it must be nice to start a new tradition with your hubby. :-D "Pick your meal" is a good idea! :-D In the beginning I used to give R2 birthday gifts without asking him what he wanted/needed, but nowadays I give R2 a "pick your bday gift" ideas. So I'd ask what he needs and then I'd find some online and asks him to pick one he he...It's harder to pick a gift for a guy IMO ha ha ha...
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ReplyDeleteI suppose over here it's the same 'coz it's too expensive to treat people in a resto, eh? HA HA HA HA HA...
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