History Main / MilestoneBirthdayAngst

* ''WesternAnimation/Madagascar1'' begins with Marty the zebra turning 10, which for a zebra is the equivalent of a human turning 40. He dejectedly tells Alex that "my life is half-over" and expresses a weariness at having been cooped up in the zoo for his whole life so far (and, he realises, for the rest of his life to come). Encouraged by the penguins' escape attempts, he decides to escape himself to see the wider world, thus kickstarting the plot of the entire trilogy.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Grandpa's Birthday", Grandpa Phil dreads his upcoming 81st birthday because he believes in a family curse where various male relatives from his side all died at the age of 81. Arnold tries convincing him that he'll be just fine, but Grandpa refuses to believe. But on the eve of Phil's birthday, Phil's still alive and he questions how this could happen--after Arnold does some mental math, he points out to his grandfather that he made some miscalculations and that the relatives he claimed fell victim to the family curse all died at the age of '''9'''1, not '''8'''1. Hearing this, Phil's excited that he's going to be okay and he, his family and the rest of the boarders (minus Oskar) celebrate.

* Dom in ''Series/{{Looking}}'' is a 39-year-old who hates that he's turning 40. He's a {{Casanova}} who doesn't want his looks to leave him and has unfulfilled career aspirations that lead him to start a restaurant.

Compare BirthdayHater, who despises all birthdays, not just the milestone ones, and FirstGrayHair, another biological marker that makes a character freak out about aging. See also GrowingUpSucks, DangerousSixteenthBirthday, Bittersweet17, MyBiologicalClockIsTicking, and OldMaid. Not to be confused with MilestoneCelebration, which is when the ''work'' does something to celebrate its age/length.

* Bella from ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' is a [[BirthdayHater]] in general, but is especially angsty about turning 18, because "It's older than Edward.".

Compare BirthdayHater, who despises all birthdays, not just the milestone ones, and FirstGrayHair, another biological marker that makes a character freak out about aging. See also GrowingUpSucks, DangerousSixteenthBirthday, Bittersweet17, MyBiologicalClockIsTicking, OldMaid, and ChristmasCake (which arose due to the pressure in Japanese society to marry by 25). Not to be confused with MilestoneCelebration, which is when the ''work'' does something to celebrate its age/length.

* ''Theatre/IfThen'': Elizabeth is 38 at the start of the musical, and part of her angst is about how she's close to 40 years old and doesn't have enough time to revive her love life and career, as seen in the opening number "What If?":

Compare BirthdayHater, who despises all birthdays, not just the milestone ones, and FirstGrayHair, another biological marker that makes a character freak out about aging. See also GrowingUpSucks, DangerousSixteenthBirthday, BittersweetSeventeen, MyBiologicalClockIsTicking, OldMaid, and ChristmasCake (which arose due to the pressure in Japanese society to marry by 25). Not to be confused with MilestoneCelebration, which is when the ''work'' does something to celebrate its age/length.

Milestone birthdays are those that society has deemed important (16, 18, 21, the "decade" birthdays, and other years significant to the character or their culture) and are meant to be happy, if retrospective, affairs. Fiction, however, tends to treat them as the year equivalent of the FirstGrayHair -- a character is approaching 30/40/50 and increasingly dreads it.

What's so special about a milestone birthday compared to a regular birthday, you may ask? Likely, the character dislikes the major reminder of getting older and the connotations of being 'someone in their 30s/40s/50s' that they are not yet prepared for. Someone turning 30 might not be want to leave their wild 20s behind and settle down, someone turning 40 may have unfulfilled career or marriage prospects, someone turning 50 isn't yet ready to start feeling 'old', and so on. Can be played a quick gag, cause a drastic life decision, spark a full-blown HollywoodMidlifeCrisis, or anything in between.

Milestone birthdays are those that society has deemed important (16, 18, 21, the "decade" birthdays, and other years significant to the character or their culture) and are meant to be happy, if retrospective, affairs. Fiction, however, tends to treat it as the year equivalent of the FirstGrayHair -- a character is approaching 30/40/50 and increasingly dreads it.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Grandpa's Birthday", Grandpa Phil dreads his upcoming 81st birthday because he believes in a family curse where his family members will die at the age of 81. Arnold tries to convince him that he's going to live but Grandpa accepts that his time is coming. On the eve of his birthday, it turns out Grandpa didn't die and that he miscalculated the family curse age, realizing it's supposed to be 91 not 81 years old. Then he, his family, and the borders (except Oskar) are overjoyed that he's going to live.

* ''Webcomic/ABittersweetLife2014'': When a group of friends is about to turn thirty, the girls complain to the guy who brought it up for killing the mood. Nani claims she started school early and is younger than the rest of them, but they don't buy it. A year later, Nani claims she still isn't thirty because her birthday hasn't happened yet, even though age isn't tied to birthdays in Korea. A year after that, Nani is out of excuses, so she pushes one of the candles into the cake to express her disappointment.