Are Birthday bumps still a thing?

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buffysbestmate@reddit (OP)

Your friends grabbed your arms and legs and you were lifted in the air (and bumped on the ground) once for each year! So 7 'bumps' if it was your 7th birthday.

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farfetchedfrank@reddit

I grew up near Birmingham and I've only heard of the punches on the arm.

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amanset@reddit

I grew up about 20 miles to the SE of Birmingham and the bumps were throwing in the air. None of this banging in the ground though.

Born mid 70s.

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Sounds like OPs mates weren't very strong! So hitting the ground was the result instead of having his spine curved in the opposite direction by being launched upward while being held by the arms and legs. Still the bumps are the bumps and a great tradition

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Lavidius@reddit

Yeah I had this in London in the nineties. Fling in the air, but no bouncing on the ground.

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The_Queef_of_England@reddit

I lived near Coventry in the 80s and I got the bumps. (Why did that sound like I'm in therapy for it?)

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_DeanRiding@reddit

From Lancashire myself growing up in the 00s/10s and it was birthday digs. Never heard of bumps..

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r-og@reddit

Yeah well, you lot only got tellies in about 1995 so I'm not surprised.

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SpudFire@reddit

Same, this definitely sounds like an age thing rather than a regional thing.

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beeurd@reddit

Interesting, I was born in the 80s and grew up about 20 miles south of Brum, and birthday bumps were as the OP described.

I haven't heard of it being a thing for a long time now though.

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your-rong@reddit

I've had both. My family did the throwing you in the air thing, kids at school would just punch your arm.

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johnnymeow2@reddit

Me too lol. Never heard of bumps lmao

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EconomyFreakDust@reddit

That sounds horrible wtf. You absolutely can break your coccyx doing that. Normal birthday bumps (punch the arm) are far safer.

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Unl0vableDarkness@reddit

I mean one could argue just not being beaten in anyway just cause it's your birthday is much better.

But then where I live haircut slaps still exist.

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Buttered_Turtle@reddit

Both existed for me too. Never got the point of it. Would always time my haircuts for school holidays so people couldn’t tell.

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kyridwen@reddit

37 and grew up in south Wales, this is what birthday bumps always meant to me too, although it wasn't like a crazy tradition everyone did. I just know that bumps meant this, even if they didn't heppen often.

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Hiker_Mick@reddit

And so many adults wonder why they have back pain haha

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Mischeese@reddit

1970/80s South London kid and we most certainly threw our friends in the air for their birthdays as the ‘bumps’. Punches sound really lame.

But my 2000s kids wouldn’t have a clue what that was, and I’ve not seen it at a birthday in 20 years.

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CaveJohnson82@reddit

Yep this is what bumps is to me as well. My kids wouldn't have a clue.

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Accomplished_Mode_70@reddit

Jeeez.. haha when I was growing up our birthday jumps were people linking their arms to make a chair type of thing, birthday person sits on the arms and they are lifted in the air once for every year lol

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cushtypanda@reddit

I actually got the bumps recently. Exactly how you described it... I'm in my 30s. Still a thing

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wardrobelion@reddit

Essex, grew up in 90s and this was for sure what we did. I will say I don’t think we hit the ground, it was more of a hoist and drop, like fluffing that parachute you’d run under in primary school.

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aspannerdarkly@reddit

I remember the birthday bumps but not running under a parachute in primary

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TheRealSlabsy@reddit

And +1 for luck

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algoodz@reddit

and two for luck and three for the old man's coconut!

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Tattycakes@reddit

I remember people doing that for smaller children! Don’t recall anyone being dropped or injured, I guess we were careful or just lucky

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TheOrthinologist@reddit

I'm 27 from Somerset. Our teachers gave us birthday bumps in primary school!

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disgruntledpelican25@reddit

I'm 36 and grew up in South London/Surrey and was definitely a thing my way!

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NadjaCravensworth@reddit

Yup, 40 and similar area growing up - bumps were definitely a thing at our school!

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edyth_@reddit

Definitely a thing when I was a kid in the East Midlands. I'm 39

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Abramumumumum@reddit

Yes, still a thing. At least in Canada. Tgough rhe lazier vetsion is rabbit punches to one spot on the upper arm.

Today i adked my boss is she had het birthday bumps... She imagined. Uh.... Pelvic bumps.

Which i would, why not?

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thefoodiedavid@reddit

I wish someone did that to me as a kid. sounds fun. I'm 34 now

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bee-sting@reddit

I was a kid in the 1980s and they had already stopped being a thing due to broken coccyxes

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wildskipper@reddit

Was banned in my school in the early 90s along with British bulldogs. Health and safety gone mad!

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Quick-Oil-5259@reddit

You can’t beat British bulldog. Especially played on tennis courts rather than grass. Ripped trousers, torn jumpers, busted glasses, bleeding knees and elbows, blows to the face. Crazy days.

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Richy_T@reddit

Jumpers for goalposts...

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littlerabbits72@reddit

Red blaze tennis courts preferable?

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P-Nuts@reddit

I think they were banned for us too but we just did them anyway.

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SnoopyLupus@reddit

I definitely had the bumps in the 80s.

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Dizzle179@reddit

They were still around in the 90s, but it certainly wasn't everyone getting them. Maybe only the most popular (or sometimes the least popular) got them.

I think throwing people in the pond became the more popular choice.

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buffysbestmate@reddit (OP)

I can imagine!

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Happy-Laugh3403@reddit

I’m just hearing about this now and it seems like an absolutely recipe for disaster lol

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Valuable-Wallaby-167@reddit

What??? I'm in my 30s and birthday bumps were punches on the arm when I was a kid. What mad place did you grow up?

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JustAnSJ@reddit

Lol I grew up in the north east and birthday bumps were definitely a thing when I was growing up in the 90s. One person grabs your wrists and another grabs your ankles so you're stretched out between the two people and then they bump you on the ground for as many years old as you are.

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markhewitt1978@reddit

Can confirm grew up in Gateshead. Many kids would stay off school on their birthday. Or keep it mega quiet because of this.

I remember one where they were literally flinging the poor guy in the air. And kicking him while airborne.

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saccerzd@reddit

When it was a special birthday, they'd douse you in petrol and set fire to you and try to blow you out like a big candle on a cake. Those were the days...

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RichardHare@reddit

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the night. But set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

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markhewitt1978@reddit

Never did us any harm!

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adam_demamps_wingman@reddit

A warm birthday? Luxury!

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souper_does@reddit

killed me that

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ShitFuckCuntBollocks@reddit

At my school we did birthday curb stomps. I miss those days.

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saccerzd@reddit

American Birthday X

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ShitFuckCuntBollocks@reddit

They made me get the tattoo on my 18th.

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DarrenTheDrunk@reddit

Snap, grew up in Gateshead, bumps involved you being being bounced off the ground, with some wanker putting the occasional boot in to help lift you up again.

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Minimum_Reception_22@reddit

They were big in Hereford in the 80’s

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MasculineRooster@reddit

South of Hampshire same but we were flung into the air too

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Junior-Concept3113@reddit

Also south Hampshire and it was into the air.

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MasculineRooster@reddit

Hello fellow Hampshire buddie

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Junior-Concept3113@reddit

Waves.

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trysca@reddit

Definitely a thing in the Far West in the 80s

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law_fallout@reddit

Essex in the 80s and 90s, bumps happened on occasion!

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CourtneyLush@reddit

Also in the southeast. I kept my birthday low key on purpose.

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saccerzd@reddit

When it was a special birthday, they'd douse you in petrol and set fire to you and try to blow you out like a big candle on a cake. Those were the days...

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patsybateman@reddit

Definitely a thing in Leeds in the 90s

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Whateverlolmeh@reddit

Actual barbarian behaviour

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MrAlf0nse@reddit

Down south it was 4 people taking a limb each of the birthday boy and flinging him into the air but not letting go, then down and up. Not touching the ground until the finale.

A recipe for a spinal injury

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Shaper_pmp@reddit

East Anglia when I was a kid: this was our version too. One person on each arm and leg, throwing you into the air in each count up to to your years in age, but keeping hold and catching your weight again before you hit the floor, then laying you on the ground afterwards.

No real injuries, because kids aren't strong enough to throw anything high enough to strain a back or overstretch limbs, and with at least one person in each arm and leg even if one slipped or lost grip the we're still enough to break the fall of the person they were bumping.

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MrAlf0nse@reddit

Yeah when you’re 7 it’s fun, when you’re 15 it’s potentially life in a wheelchair

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Shaper_pmp@reddit

Nah - I got the bumps from drunken mates once when I was in my early 20s.

A long as they aren't complete morons and there are enough people to actually hold your weight it's not that dangerous.

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Lunchy_Bunsworth@reddit

Same here in Kent. Some people did use a blanket and bundled the victim into that and threw them up and down which was just as dangerous.

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_UrbanGypsy_@reddit

I was Kent growing up and just punches to the arm for me

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Realistic_Wedding@reddit

Ah yes, this is the 80’s Hertfordshire way.

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doyoulikecows@reddit

Likewise. Forces school in West Germany.

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vipros42@reddit

This is how I know it too. Home counties and the south west.

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bigdogg2783@reddit

LMAO we never did that, but we used to do something vaguely similar called “making him a man”, where one person would grab someone’s arms, the other their legs, and then they’d swing the unlucky victim before letting go at the highest point. The favoured place to do it was at the top of a grass bank down to the cricket pitches.

Unfortunately, a smaller lad in my year got made a man by two of the rugby team who launched him about 20 feet all the way down the bank, and he landed like a sack of cement on his back at the bottom, and had to go to hospital. He was ok, but the game was banned and anyone caught partaking in it threatened with expulsion from then on.

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toonlass91@reddit

I’m north east too and never heard of this. It was punches on the arm. Born 91 so not that different age wise

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Professional-Fig3168@reddit

That's birthday beats not to be confused with birthday bumps which is being thrown up and down into the air.

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toonlass91@reddit

No. We definitely called the hit on the arm bumps. Literally not heard of what you have been describing. My husband is however. Maybe it died out really quickly in my area?

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CompanySubstantial68@reddit

This was a thing in Czech Republic in the 90s as well 😂

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geeered@reddit

South East/East Anglia, also the same at Scouts in the 90s.

Though we were at least bumped in the air, kept off the ground.

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Wind_Yer_Neck_In@reddit

In northern ireland in the 90s this was definitely a thing but it wasn't other kids doing it and kicking the shit out of you or bashing you off the ground. It would be your parents/relatives and the idea would be to fling you way up in the air and not quite let you touch the ground as you came back down.

We used to love it lol, your version sounds like bullying.

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RetiredFromIT@reddit

"And one for luck!"

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Josquius@reddit

How odd. I'm from the north east too and was definitely a beating in my school.

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JustAnSJ@reddit

That was called "birthday beatings" - different thing

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Holiday_Ad4204@reddit

"Birthday beats" for us!

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Holiday_Ad4204@reddit

For extras, on the upswing you'd get kicked in the back by by-standers.

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centrafrugal@reddit

bump you on the ground? We were thrown in the air!

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JustAnSJ@reddit

Like lift you in the air and bop your bum onto the ground

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RobotsVsLions@reddit

It must be a generational thing, cause I was in high school in the north east in the 00’s and birthday bumps was absolutely a punch in the arm.

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pixxie84@reddit

West Mids and thats how we did the bumps when i was a kid too.

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DameKumquat@reddit

In the 80s when I was at boarding school, it was throwing you in the air for however many years you were. The bump was when they (about 10 people in a narrow corridor) weren't very good at catching you.

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Mr_Incrediboy@reddit

Thought that was called chuggyboating. It got banned in our school after a kids collar bond was broken doing it.

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JustAnSJ@reddit

Never heard of that!

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Unl0vableDarkness@reddit

Shuggy and birthday bumps are different.

Shuggy sways you back and forth. Bumps are like when you see a person trying to fold large laundry and they shake it up and down quickly and violently before folding. The birthday kids the laundry.

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Purple_ash8@reddit

Ouch.

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GraphicDesignMonkey@reddit

The Bumps were/are a thing here in Northern Ireland. We still did them as adults at the Venue rock bar :D

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DarthMaulofDathomir@reddit

SAVAGES

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buffysbestmate@reddit (OP)

Brummy born and bred

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deepfriedturnips@reddit

This is going to be another of those local things that I’ve only just discovered isn’t normal to anyone outside of the Birmingham conurbation, like calling roundabouts islands and forward rolls gambols.

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r-og@reddit

I'm from Essex, we did the bumps

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scifisam2020@reddit

Yeah, grew up in Essex and we did it too. Don't think it's regional, it's something that's died out, probably because it is actually a bit dangerous and sometimes painful.

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RWBrYan@reddit

It’s called bumps in Scotland. Think the folk throwing kids around are the outlier here

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Lexalotus@reddit

I'm from Tamworth and remember birthday bumps as being thrown in the air too. We also say islands in Tamworth but not gambols weirdly, those few miles make all the difference 😊

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RoadDifferent4617@reddit

GAMBOLS?!

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Alternative_Bit_3445@reddit

Yeah, I've moved to Brum and my step kids told me they did gambols at school - I had a vision of them trotting around a field and neighing.

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Aurorafaery@reddit

I’m from Coventry and we’ve always called them gambols (but I thought it was gambowl until you guys wrote this)

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Alternative_Bit_3445@reddit

It's a Brum(adjacent) ting!

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your-rong@reddit

I grew up in Cornwall and we did it.

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Autocratonasofa@reddit

Devon, too.. Ooh look we've got something in common. Quick, let's argue about cream teas.

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Pleasant-Gap5298@reddit

Grew up in the South. We had the bumps as kids in the 80s and 90s

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johnnymeow2@reddit

Me too but I have never heard of birthday bumps only beating. I’m 27

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r-og@reddit

English traditions dying out smh

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johnnymeow2@reddit

😂😂

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Paisleyhobo@reddit

Unlucky

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tcpukl@reddit

We called them that in the south as well.

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Valuable-Wallaby-167@reddit

Well that explains a lot

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bonkerz1888@reddit

Also in my 30s.

Bumps were always a knee to the arse.

In Scotland at least.

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RWBrYan@reddit

I’m in my 30s and also from Scotland. Bumps were punches in the arm equal to the amount of years you were celebrating

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bonkerz1888@reddit

Aye seems they were different things to different people.

Highlands here if that makes any difference.

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DarkHorseStoryTeller@reddit

Same, but in Edinburgh/West Lothian I've only seen punches to the back or arms growing up, haven't heard the term in a long time.

Nobody gives a 30yo birthday beatings, I miss those times.

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Gullible_Wind_3777@reddit

You got birthday beatings my friend. Birthday bumps are being thrown up and down by your family and friends. My cousins got them once, was so funny, she layed on a bed sheet and every grabbed the Edgar’s and corner and flung her up over and over. One ‘bounce’ for how ever old you are.

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RWBrYan@reddit

Never known anyone to call that bumps. Bumps are the punches on your arm.

Yours must be a local thing

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Gullible_Wind_3777@reddit

To me, bumps has always been as it sounds, bumping lol, punches to the arms were and always have been birthday beatings.

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TheHeirOfElendil@reddit

On the back for us, I'm 33. Pretty sure it's assault now 😂

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r-og@reddit

Nah, birthday beats is the bunches, bumps has always been throwing someone up in the air.

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Local_Fox_2000@reddit

bumps has always been throwing someone up in the air.

Maybe where you are from but not everywhere and not where I'm from in Scotland. Bumps were always punches to the back here, but no one can say what it right and wrong. All we have is our own experiences and it looks like people called them different things, which is fine.

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highrouleur@reddit

Getting my 46th birthday bumps soon. Here in Romford, it was always surround the birthday boy, push him backwards and have people catch each arm as he fell, then each leg was grabbed and he was hurled upwards while still being held. 1 bump for each year of age

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stowberry@reddit

It was punches to the back for us!

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Comfortable-Use5648@reddit

This is what we had in our school too. We used to call them birthday beats.

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GraphicDesignMonkey@reddit

The Bumps (where you were thrown in the air) were/are a thing here in Northern Ireland. We still did them as adults at the Venue rock bar :D

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Taramasalata-Rapist@reddit

Similar age and they were knees to the thighs for us

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pip_goes_pop@reddit

We had both. “The bumps” was being thrown up in the air - 12 times for 12th birthday for example. Then “birthday beats” was punches. East mids.

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notimefornothing55@reddit

I came here to say this. Birthday beatings

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tcpukl@reddit

Throwing in the air was what we called them as well. I've never heard of punching arms, that's a dead arm.

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Tradtrade@reddit

Bumps was being thrown up in the air by al your loved ones

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brunettewondie@reddit

a leg and a wing

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bearwright1@reddit

Birthday bumps for me were being thrown up in the air but it did morph into punches in the arm

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Over_Championship990@reddit

We just punch you in the back in Scotland.

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OctopusIntellect@reddit

I remember seeing a newspaper article (yes, I know this is similar to hearing something that my boyfriend's cousin's grand-mother once heard about) about how, in the 1930s or thereabouts, some boy of about 9 or 10 had been given "the birthday beats" (or some similar name) by a huge gang of slightly older boys, somewhere in northern England.

According to the newspaper article, he had begged his friends not to tell anyone when his birthday was. But someone had somehow let the secret slip, and as a result he ended up getting a brutal beating. The climate and the conditions of the time being what they were, he ended up with pneumonia and nearly dying.

No charges against those responsible, of course.

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Not-That_Girl@reddit

I grew up in the 70s, there wasn5 any bumping on the ground, just fun being flung in the air. I'd totally forgotten this, wow!

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Libidinous_soliloquy@reddit

Same here, less bumping and more seeing how high you could get them. I definitely remember the teachers came over if they saw you doing it to make sure you weren't too aggressive as there has been some stories in the nationwide press about kids getting hurt.

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OctopusIntellect@reddit

Always the mainstream media exaggerating this woke agenda about "kids at risk"! smh my head /s

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amanset@reddit

Same. Born mid 70s.

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mozzamo@reddit

People still do this in the toilet in pubs

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thelastwilson@reddit

That's not what they are bumping in the toilets...

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chocolate_pancakes1@reddit

Dunno

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HunterFast4401@reddit

Had I thing a my school, rather than up and down it was swinging from side to side and hurled into a nettle filled ditch at the side of the playing field. Lucky only for the least popular, I only got flung up in the air.

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Scorpiodancer123@reddit

Yes I grew up in Wales and remember it. But it was usually adults doing bumps on little kids.

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Poisoned_Claws@reddit

Americans stopped the bumps tradition decades ago. Considering the mass of the average American kid you'd be looking at multiple injuries to all parties involved and quite possibly a small crater.

:D

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WarriorDerp@reddit

I still do it with my kids. Hurts more on my birthday than it does theirs. A quick bop on the arm for them, a gang war for me

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DangerousMango6@reddit

I'm late 20s and I’ve never heard of this.

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Eurghunderstandme@reddit

We used to have a thing at school we're the teacher would tug your hair and say hen cock or goose? I can't remember the rest of it, but I never see or hear of it anymore.

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TheQualityOfMersey@reddit

'My grandmother died on her 100th birthday. It was so sad - we were only halfway through giving her the bumps'. Can't remember who told that, but it always tickled me.

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checksout1981@reddit

Can someone please tell my grandma birthday spankings are no longer a thing please. I'm almost 60 at this point

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Gathering_Storm_@reddit

I never knew I had this memory, but now I’ve been reminded, yes I distinctly remember my father & his friends throwing me up and down for one of my birthdays when I was a child! I hope they are still a thing.

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mediadavid@reddit

This stuff sounds mad.

I'm 39 (from Glasgow) and birthday bumps were vaguely a thing - but only as relatively gentle thumps on the back.

People really got lifted up and smashed into the ground? how many deaths did that cause!

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here-but-not-present@reddit

Hahaha growing up in Ayr in the 90s, the birthday bumps were either being put up in the air however many times, or more commonly, someone would hold your arms and knee you in your arse while counting up to whatever age you were. It bloody hurt!

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cmzraxsn@reddit

same in edinburgh but i could swear ppl said "dumps" instead of "bumps", even though the latter makes more sense.

(depends who you got to do them, they could be very un-gentle. also if you kept it quiet till noon you were safe)

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Pembremham@reddit

+1 for "dumps".

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Welshy123@reddit

relatively gentle thumps on the back.

This was how I remember it in Ayrshire, but it was a pretty solid slap/thump on the back. Or at least as solid as little boys on the playground can dish out.

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lostmyselfinyourlies@reddit

I'm 40, from Falkirk, and we would get bumps which were open handed whacks on the back, usually the last one had some extra spice to it lol

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Welshy123@reddit

Of course, that was the extra one for good luck!

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geraltsthiccass@reddit

I've never heard of this, was always punches in the back with the one for luck being the hardest. That one's still a thing except looks to be arms instead here going by the colour of my nephews arms after his birthday

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foxfunk@reddit

I'm 27, never had the bumps. Though I remember my cousin who's mid-30s saying she had them. Must have died off in the 90s.

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WoodSteelStone@reddit

My grandma died on her 100th birthday as we were half way through giving her the bumps. We take solace from the fact she was screaming with happiness at the very moment she passed away.

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PassiveTheme@reddit

I remember two distinct types of birthday bumps. At school, it was punches on the arm (in the exact same spot) which meant you would try and avoid people knowing it was your birthday, and spent most of your birthday avoiding your friends. With my parents (and my judo club) it was what you're talking about.

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buy_me_a_pint@reddit

bumps happened in secondary school quite often

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BuckFastardly@reddit

Aye, we did birthday bumps here in Belfast.. Lift them up and down for each year... My 92 year old granny fecken hates it.

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tcpukl@reddit

You wouldn't need the gym after that!

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Holiday_Ad4204@reddit

Thats why all the kids are fat nowadays - not bumping anymore

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tcpukl@reddit

That's what we need to cure obesity!

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BuckFastardly@reddit

We're catholic, she has 7 kids and about 40 grandkids, so we all get a turn to give her the bumps, poor dear gets passed around like a spliff.

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GraphicDesignMonkey@reddit

We used to do the bumps at the old Venue rock bar! Tried it in the Limelight once and got thrown out.

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Gullible_Wind_3777@reddit

I laughed too much at this one 😂👌

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geoffacakes@reddit

A knee to the arse, Very hard.

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itsinmybloodScotland@reddit

Just bumps on the back when I was a child 1960’s.

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Alert-Stress4@reddit

The birthday bumps? They don't still do that, DO THEY? I thought, due to health & safty they were outlawed. I know kids can't even play CONKERS at school now.

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ReySpacefighter@reddit

Oh my GOD, not CONKERS!

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Alert-Stress4@reddit

I'm afraid so.

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Extension-Worry2253@reddit

Oh Christ! The bumps really were terrifying! It really was an excuse to ragdoll someone you didn’t like by ‘losing your grip’ and a 5-6foot drop was never fun. To those that have never seen/experienced this congratulations

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Odd-Row1169@reddit

Cocaine or ketamine?

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Chooks2pooks@reddit

Yorkshire born 80s, birthday bumps were flinging somone up in the air like a parachute by the limbs, but not banging the floor. childhood memories unlocked I thought I'd only see my older brothers friends do them at rugby/cricket... Then I remembered a very gentle version done for children at primary school by the lunchtime staff/other children. Maybe swinging or tiny lifts. I'd completely forgotten. I think it was stopped when I was about 7/8.

Birthday beats were the next thing resorted to as bumps were "banned" at school. Or maybe it was just from saved by the bell or some type of kids show.

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Rkins_UK_xf@reddit

Phew. Thank God that is over.

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The_Queef_of_England@reddit

Damn, I haven't thought about the bumps since primary school! I hope it is. I loved the bumps...43 now though, so I imagine it would hurt a bit.

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batmonkey7@reddit

Fuck no! Do not do this!

It leads to broken bones as well as possible spinal damage!

What the hell is wrong with people?!

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doyoulikecows@reddit

There was also birthday egging - a raw egg unexpectly broken over your head. But I think that was also a popular last day of term thing to random people you liked/hated/fancied.

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lodav22@reddit

I was born in the 80's in mid wales and we definitely had this in our primary school. I remember one portly kid got dropped on his back and was out of school for a week. TBF looking back the teacher should have probably stopped that one!

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beccyboop95@reddit

We did it when I was at primary school (I’m 28) and it was a knee up the arse hahaha

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-dommmm@reddit

We had birthday beats. Which were punches. 1 for every year of your age.

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Maggieg89@reddit

Grew up in liverpool and yes the birthday bumps were a thing here. Everyone holds the edge of a sheet you in the middle and they bounce you

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spanish_john22234@reddit

birthday beats instead

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llynglas@reddit

My gosh, I had no idea what you were talking about and then it all came back.... I'm not a great data point as I grew up in the 60s, when bumps, dinosaurs and pirates were all a thing.

Thanks for the memory.

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Puzzleheaded-Day1956@reddit

Birthday Bumps can mean a completely different thing depending on where you grew up lol

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anytime710@reddit

Birthday beats.

Birthday bumps is what the coke heads do in the pub on their birthday.

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RYAN_BENJAMIN@reddit

We had “Birthday Beats” which were punches on the arm, so when you turned 15 you’d get 15 “beats”, I’ve heard of “Birthday Bumps” and just assumed they were similar?

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androgynousandroid@reddit

I’m pretty sure this is exactly why the bumps have faded away.

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EuroSong@reddit

Born in 1979, and I have only ever heard of the bumping on the ground version. Never the punch on the arm version.

Never had either done to me, nor done them to anyone else.

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BansheeZessinthal@reddit

Birthday bumps for me were as you describe, and I hated them 🙂

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androgynousandroid@reddit

You definitely don’t hear about it much. It was certainly a thing near Liverpool for someone born early 80s. There is an episode of Bottom where they give Richie the bumps, whilst he has all of his limbs in plaster casts. Getting digs in the arm for your birthday was also a thing, I guess people have just mixed up the meanings over time.

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WarmTransportation35@reddit

Reminds me of when I was 16 on a friend's birthday and said I will give her birthday beats followed by my mate saiying "with your dick". That made us all shocked and laugh.

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bakedNdelicious@reddit

I remember birthday bumps but don’t think it’s a thing anymore

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PlasticFannyTastic@reddit

https://youtu.be/XbLYDKU_fcg

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Othersideofthemirror@reddit

Bumps were banned at my school in the 80s.

Would involve a large group doing the bumps whilst some were slapping or hitting the stomach and ribs. Once the poor beaten lad was laid on the ground after the bumps someone would shout "bundle!" and then everyone would pile on and basically, finish the poor fucker off.

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PlasticFannyTastic@reddit

In my mid 40s, Londoner and birthday bumps (one bump, or throw in the air, per year) was a thing though high school. Usually ended up in soggy grassy arses but no major injuries. We called it ‘getting’ or ‘giving’ the bumps.

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Asleep-Win-9008@reddit

We always did birthday bumps down here on the south coast

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phred_666@reddit

WTF?

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ComposerThen6483@reddit

Used to done in Oxon

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cmzraxsn@reddit

We had "birthday dumps" in edinburgh and it was just being punched hard on the back.

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Adriiii333@reddit

I grew up near Liverpool, born 2001. They were a thing in my high school. Not heard them talked about for a few years. I get the impression from older relatives/teachers that it was a bigger thing in their day

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SarNic88@reddit

Kent here, 35, and we definitely had birthday bumps where your mates chucked you in the air as I was always slightly aggrieved that I missed out on them because my birthday was during half term. Of course in hindsight it was better not having a birthday at school each year!

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WhichBreakfast1169@reddit

I’m 40 from Wales and we did the bumps. Being flung up in the air once for each year of your age. I haven’t heard of it for many years. The last time I heard of this was late 80s, maybe 90 or 91 but no later than that.

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No-Significance-1627@reddit

I'm 30 and from the South Wales borders and we definitely did bumps. If you were really lucky you got to go in a sheet instead so you didn't even get your joints ripped out at the sockets - essentially birthday kid sits in the middle of the sheet, everyone at the party lifts the edges and throws you that way instead. That version was definitely more fun imo.

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chroniccomplexcase@reddit

One of the BSL signs for ‘birthday’ is like a beat on the head (there is a newer one that is like a thumbs up over the heart) but the beats one is still used and comes from ‘birthday beats’ so in the deaf community it’s still alive and well!

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E39er@reddit

I remember these but there was no banging on the ground, just grab the hands/wrists and feet/ankles and lift them up, then bump them upwards and don't drop them. Fun, no injurys.

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SuggestionWrong504@reddit

God no. Even talking about the bumps would probably enrage half the population nowadays.

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filepeter@reddit

These days, if you mention the bumps you’ll be arrested and thrown in jail

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zar2k23@reddit

It's Health & Safety gone mad!

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DoctorOctagonapus@reddit

Where I was it was "birthday beats". One year I was chased halfway round the school.

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feisty_bookworm@reddit

Saw it recently, a 'very Christian' dad insisted his son have the bumps. Kid didn't enjoy it, siblings clearly would prefer not to but dad had great fun. Kids don't go to school, they work on the family farm so they have no idea how long ago this died out.

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Accomplished_Ad_2743@reddit

Well I certainly had a few bumps on my birthday🤥🥳🤯

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hellcats69@reddit

It was a thing in Glasgow and one more for good luck. X

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littlerabbits72@reddit

Agree, I'd have called it 'nips & dumps' though, not bumps.

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Lumpy-Ad8618@reddit

Wtf never heard of it. And am a 40yr old maybe it's just not a thing in South Yorkshire.

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Silverlsurferlady@reddit

I l} iced in Sussex most of my life, seems the bumps is or was a southern thing. I never heard of a punch on the arm, it was always the bumbs

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BritishGibbo@reddit

A birthday bump is a .1 on a key and shouldn’t hurt your coccyx at all… up north anyway

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kramer2006@reddit

Not where I live

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Vickyinredditland@reddit

I grew up in Cheshire, I'm 40 and I've never heard of this, but I've never liked being handled so If anyone tried I would've shut that shit down immediately 😅

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Comfortable-Use5648@reddit

In our school, it was birthday beats

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Silverlsurferlady@reddit

I hated this in the sixties secondary school I went to. Once I didn't go to school on my birthday. Hade be careful, missing going to lessons, got me once the cane from headmaster White, on the fingers. Baraaric when you think what they got away with the. I think my most shocking brutality I saw. Was a pupil who ripped off a prefects blazer buttons. He got the cane in front of the whole school on the platform in the assembly room.

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Alternative_Bit_3445@reddit

I was a fat kid, so no one attempted to give me the bumps. But yeah, def a thing in 1970s primary schools in Bristol.

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Quick-Oil-5259@reddit

Was definitely a big thing in the 70s and 80s.

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Public_Star_7977@reddit

Most kids were lighter 40+ years ago

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WilkoCEO@reddit

Born in 2003 and never heard of them

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Honest-Register-5151@reddit

North London, grew up 70’s. We’d put someone in a blanket and throw them in the air. Some idiot pulled the blanket away and broke a guys arm. Can’t believe the stupid shit we got up to back then.

We’d get orange crates from the grocers and find some wheels and balance the crate on top and go down the steepest hill we could find. 5 kids in the cart and a broken crate, 5 kids spread out battered and bleeding then 5 kids going home and getting a wallop from mum for being idiots!!

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Antoxin0@reddit

Birthday bumps are punches on the arm nowadays, never heard of lifting people up and down haha

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CatWombles@reddit

Hahaha, I’m familiar with both the punches in the arm and also the full body bumps. I think the full body one where someone has your arms and someone has your legs is more specific to rough northerners but I’m not sure 😂

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Davina2011@reddit

We gave my 70 year old dad the bumps last month.

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KtMrgn@reddit

When I was younger it was punching and tbh if anyone had ‘bumped’ me I’d have suckerpunched them right back to see how they liked it. Absolutely not OK.

That said, I haven’t heard of the throwing-in-the-air thing, but if your husband is talking about broken coccyxes (?!) I’d be putting my foot down with a firm NO.

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Lorezia@reddit

I've never seen or heard of it happening in real life

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7ootles@reddit

Birthday digs (as we called them when I was growing up) are a punch to the upper arm, one for each year and one extra "for next year" or "for luck".

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GeneralDisarray213@reddit

I had to scroll too far to find the correct term, birthday digs! Whenever someone found out it was your birthday it was: "have you had your digs?"

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7ootles@reddit

Whenever someone found out it was your birthday it was: "have you had your digs?"

Haha, with me I got digs whether or not I'd already had them. Most birthdays I had at secondary school had me going around with a numb arm by lunchtime.

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GeneralDisarray213@reddit

Yep my 15th birthday at school was brutal, got a lot more than 15 digs anyway

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Kneekicker4ever@reddit

Not since fast food became the staple diet

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nobelprize4shopping@reddit

This was definitely a thing in the 70s in Berkshire and Bristol in my experience

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roguesimian@reddit

At my school we had a branch of holly stuck down our shirts and then thrown into the air by a group of other kids. Being dropped on the ground wasn’t a thing.

The 80s were wild.

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thecraftybee1981@reddit

Birthday bumps to me were the punches to your arms for each year by your school friends. In my primary school in the 1980s, it also involved heading to the front of assembly and the teacher yanking on your hair for each year too.

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younevershouldnt@reddit

The latest victim of woke madness (except nobody noticed we'd stopped it).

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Interrogatingthecat@reddit

And you lost all credibility when you decided to call things "woke"

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yellowfolder@reddit

Replies like this are physically painful

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younevershouldnt@reddit

Did I really need to add the sarcasm thingy?

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algoodz@reddit

I had them last at my 21st birthday party - 30 years ago. Had forgotten all about it. Not the best look when you're wearing a short dress.

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noon94@reddit

Over here it was birthday beatings and they were punches on the arm!

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Englands_Finest85@reddit

We gave a kid the birthday bumps broke both his wrists!!😳😳😳

Thing was it wasn’t even his birthday

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LowResponsibility374@reddit

Im 50 from East Anglia, Birthday bumps were a thing, wrists and ankles grabbed and hoiked in the air one bump for every year.

(when you were too big they just gave you a new onion for your belt)

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Every-Swordfish-9719@reddit

I'm East Anglian and grew up in the late nineties/noughties. Bumps were definitely still a well-done thing then, too. If they're not common anymore then it's not been long since over here.

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dualdee@reddit

I'm 38 and this is the first I've heard of them, in any form.

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Golden1976@reddit

We had the birthday bumps in Suffolk when I grew up! Like you mentioned each arm and leg was grabbed and up and down we went!! My kids haven't had this happen. Different generation I guess!

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DW_555@reddit

We had them in Oxfordshire in the 80s, but it wouldn't surprise me if kids aren't allowed to do it now. What you should do is what happens down my local boozer, thanks to a few of the Latvians that drink there. The birthday person sits in a chair - just an ordinary wooden one, as long as it has a back (but not usually any arms) - and four or five of us who are feeling strong* grab said chair by the legs/seat and hoist it into the air for the required number of times, kind of like a reverse bumps. Given that most of us are 30/40 something, it requires a lot of stamina!

*Not too pissed

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WatchOne2032@reddit

We used to get the bumps in Norfolk.

You got thrown up in the air once for each year and for the last one you got thrown in a Bush or hedge!

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cleb9200@reddit

South East England here. Definitely a thing growing up in 80s/90s. I’d totally forgotten about it til I read this post which suggests it isn’t a thing anymore in the tech age. But yeah, every kid got hoisted, one bump for each year. It was epic

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bradspitts@reddit

Birthday beats were punches to the arm, birthday bumps was being flung up in the air with people holding your wrists and ankles

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Interesting-Mix8144@reddit

I'd imagine they aren't SUCH a big thing nowadays because sensitivities/concerns about views of others as well as, if in a public place, I suspect some one in health and safety would have a brain aneurysm seeing it happen....

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WolverineNo1400@reddit

From Liverpool, born 1970, had bumps on the ground and later, in teenage years it became a transition to punches on the arm. Noticed the same thing when I was legal to drink, started changing from the birthday person bought all the drinks to them receiving drinks because it was their birthday.

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GladAd2948@reddit

We’d be hit on the tush with a ruler at school in Year 3.

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Affectionate_You_858@reddit

I grew up in Durham and the bumps were either punches to the arm or knees to the thigh

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SceneDifferent1041@reddit

I know what you mean. I vaugly remember someone getting paralysed in the 90s and it stopped being a thing in schools.

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Vyvyansmum@reddit

Grew up in Basingstoke & it was in my 70/80’s childhood. Friends grabbed a limb each & flung you up in the air for each year of your life. Secondary to that was the “ birthday beats” - punches to the arm for the number of years. Never witnessed it since having my kids in 2000’s .

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dadsuki2@reddit

That's fuckin savage

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Amplidyne@reddit

Used to have the bumps at school. Chucked in the air, All boys school, it was quite "vigourous" but nobody ever got dropped or hurt. Good fun.

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sc00022@reddit

Grew up in London in the 90s/00s and I’ve heard of both the punches and the bumps. Punches more common as you got older. Doubt either are a thing now

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ReySpacefighter@reddit

It's supposed to be "birthday beats"... hits on the arm. What the hell is this?

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octobod@reddit

I was a big lad, when I was 12 I was too heavy to bump even if I cooperated.

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shitweek@reddit

I grew up in SE London in the 70s/80s bumps were definitely a thing

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demonicdelight_@reddit

I'm in my early 20s, and we had birthday bumps. We liked to see how hard we could punch. The last bump was always the hardest punch, lol.

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bobaboo42@reddit

I'm 40 today, still no sign of any bumps but the day is young (unlike me)!

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TheRealSlabsy@reddit

We gave a kid the bumps at school for his 14th birthday and accidentally knocked him out on the ceiling. We then all stood around as a teacher pulled the lad's tongue from his throat and proceeded to put him into the recovery position.

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PrincessStephanieR@reddit

I remember this. Yes, being thrown up in the air. Scary. Hated it!

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perishingtardis@reddit

It's maybe become a bit of an older generation thing. I'm 31, I've never actually seen the birthday bumps being done on anyone, but I knew what it was. I have seen it being done at weddings and the end of the day.

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Frequent-Rain3687@reddit

South west & I had the bumps too throwing you up in the air & catching you the number of times you were years old I used to love it , now that I think about it’s quite a test of trust in your family & friends , punches on the arm sounds rubbish .

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curiously-peculiar@reddit

25f and I’ve never heard of any birthday bearings or being thrown into the air??

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Kind_Animal_4694@reddit

Bumps in Northamptonshire was a person on each hand and foot, the birthday boy lifted into the air repeatedly, and kicked on the way down around the arse/coccyx

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Shoddy-Pie-7012@reddit

80s & 90s London. Birthday bumps at home and Birthday beats at school and on the estate. I completely forgot about Birthday bumps though.....

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JBEqualizer@reddit

Bumps were sometimes a thing when I was at school in the NE back in the early 90s. It seemed more like a way to bully people rather than as something your friends did, as it was always dickheads who thought it was 'fun' to smash someone's back off the ground several times before dropping them in a heap on the ground.

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