If you go by neurology, the age would have to be somewhere like 23/25, since your brain doesn't finish developing certain skills until then (things like impulse control and such). I don't know anyone who would be happy with the idea of raising the age of majority to around 23, though. You could argue that you're an adult when you are responsible for yourself, again, some 15-16 year olds are very responsible, but they're none the less still kids. What's your definition?
I suppose it's very individual, and being an adult is not a constant, there always comes periods of regression combined with progressive senility, so by the time you consider yourself mature you're probably halfway into the coffin already.
While I'm sure many young adults would not like the age of majority increased, I don't think most adults really consider 18 year olds adults regardless of their maturity level. Even at 21,22, and 23, I still don't feel most adults consider the people in this age group fully mature adults either. I'm not there yet, but from what I can tell from my personal experience, is that by the time people reach their late 20s and definitely by 30, regardless of how mature they actually are, other adults including the individual seem to be comfortable considering someone an adult. I believe it is a slow physical, mental, and emotional process that begins at around 12 or 13 where the majority slowly begin to accept the young as one of their own as they develop and change.
I don't think there is something ''out there" that is adulthood and we can define this real thing. It is a shorthand and a very hazy one. I don't for example see most 40 year olds as having impulse control. It seems to me they have just found effective ways to self-medicate their impulses and they have control of their own funds so they can control their own access - within the limits of their budgets - to the various forms of self-medication - anything from alcohol to being a sports fan to shopping to pretending to fantasizing to playing the lottery to going on the internet.... let alone all the illegal forms of self-medication or the pharma industry's well help you medicate yourself options. Adulthood seems to be when the smoke clears and you've figured out how not pretend things suit you.
^I agree, really. I hear how young people have problems with impulse control or managing emotions, but I look at a lot of adults and see that they're not a whole lot better. I'm not talking about exceptions to a norm, either. I guess human beings suck, regardless of age, gender, or other such boundaries. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
My position: it's not so much that you need to control all impulses, but that you need to know when it's okay to be impulsive and when you should keep a lid on it. Dying your hair neon green, for example, is harmless impulsiveness; jumping 40ft into water that might be shallow, not so much. (Of course, that's a very simplistic example; most situations aren't that black and white).
I sometimes worry that all the drug use and drinking I did between 16 and 20 may have stunted the maturity of my brain or something.
I kind of regret not letting loose and doing a few stupid things as a younger teen. Not drink or drugs, but I wish I'd pushed a few boundaries now and then. I think the worst thing I ever did was go moshing at the Slayer concert when my mother had told me not to. (She didn't wanna have to drag my autistic brother all the way to accident and emergency at the regional hospital, which is like 2 hours away...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!) On the other hand, that wouldn't have been fair to my mom. She had enough to deal with already.
Yeah, but acting like a child sure doesn't make you one. Everyone should have their childish moments from time to time though, people who don't are dull and saddening to be around.
It seems to me that in this culture, an adult is one in his minimum age of 20 that has accepted certain roles, attitudes, and beliefs that make him or her grow dull. You know.. the "grown up and adult thing to do" is to get a job you hate, marry someone when you really don't want to but believe you do, have kids, and be disappointed when retirement isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Uh...yeah, OK CT. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I am surprised that no-one mentioned a couple of things. Like, your liver doesn't really get kicking until your' early 20's. Your brain is still changing very rapidly until then as well, also your mind and the way that you think and react. All of those hormones that hit your bloodstream in your early teens change composition and proportions in your mid - twenties, with accompanying changes in outlook, mood and emotion. While there is a legal definition of what age qualifies you as an "adult", that is sorta arbitrary. Some of us can reproduce at maybe 11 or 12, others don't sexually mature until their late teens. Some of us never quite reach that "adulthood". Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
