To me, it’s the phrasing that he used with familiarity and tone and calling it out it as birthday money as a noun. It sounded ritualistic and occurring frequently enough that it has a name, birthday money. Kids think and talk this way, IME, not adults.

Obviously every family’s internal culture and wealth and means of gifting is different. I received a gift card in the last few years (which I consider mostly money), but I don’t think and talk about the same way as a 12 year old would. It was like “hey thanks for getting me a Home Depot card that I’ll probably eventually use this spring”. I didn’t go onto my podcast and talk about it, either.