Childhood's end.
Mar. 22nd, 2004 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueWhen does childhood end?
There's definitely a dividing line between child and adult.
The process of growing up is slow and steady, but comes in bursts. So I ask this.
At what point do you stop being a child, and start being and adult?
I was thinking that perhaps as you grow up, the child gradually recedes, and the adult increases.
But is there a definite event that splits the two? In much the same way as you can measure the turning of the seasons by the first green leaf on a tree, or the first leaf to turn reddish brown.
Do you become an adult:
The first time you become interested in sex?
The day you realise that Santa Claus is not real?
When you first realise that your parents are human, and make mistakes too?
You understand that one day you're going to die?
You have to pay bills, and manage your income?
You leave home for the first time?
You lose the ability to play with your toys?
Or is it simply on the day of your 18th birthday? I know some 12 year olds that I consider more 'adult' than 20 year olds, but is 'adulthood' simply a measurement of age?
How would you define the point at which you became an adult?
Is there a definitive event or set of events that made you think that: "actually, I am not a child any more?"
There's definitely a dividing line between child and adult.
The process of growing up is slow and steady, but comes in bursts. So I ask this.
At what point do you stop being a child, and start being and adult?
I was thinking that perhaps as you grow up, the child gradually recedes, and the adult increases.
But is there a definite event that splits the two? In much the same way as you can measure the turning of the seasons by the first green leaf on a tree, or the first leaf to turn reddish brown.
Do you become an adult:
The first time you become interested in sex?
The day you realise that Santa Claus is not real?
When you first realise that your parents are human, and make mistakes too?
You understand that one day you're going to die?
You have to pay bills, and manage your income?
You leave home for the first time?
You lose the ability to play with your toys?
Or is it simply on the day of your 18th birthday? I know some 12 year olds that I consider more 'adult' than 20 year olds, but is 'adulthood' simply a measurement of age?
How would you define the point at which you became an adult?
Is there a definitive event or set of events that made you think that: "actually, I am not a child any more?"
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-22 12:41 pm (UTC)I think that adulthood as the modern concept comes around when the child starts to take responsiblity for things, their actions. Adulthood is i think a degree of emotional maturity, my sister Anna was emotionally mature by the time she was 9, it lead to much fustration on me and pauls part cos we couldn't involve her in many things because of age limits. but Anna understood this and as she's got old enough we take her to the stuff we couldn't.
i personally liked the idea of a rite of passage. something to prove to the world your adluthood. rather than an age, i know from my job there are people who have a mental maturity of a child and some who have mental maturity of an adult.