When do you become an adult?

[2Cool4Mewtwo]

My "criteria" for an adulthood is when you've grown as tall as you could and your puberty has already ended.

 

[twocows]

When you lose your virginity.


@anyone who says 18-21: CHRIS-CHAN.
That is my argument.

Gonna be really corny now and say this...

When you actually fall in love.

Yeah, that's bullcrap. Having sex definitely doesn't make one an adult; quite the contrary, sex causes people to be immature idiots. As for love, it's a vague term that different people claim means different things. You may as well say people are adults once they're tall; it's just as vague of a standard and at least it tends to correlate to age. And it has the same bearing on maturity, as well (e.g., none whatsoever).

Oh, but if we're just saying things because they sound cool, you're not an adult until you've watched your loved ones die around you. I think I heard that in a war movie once.

 

[Renegade1]

I believe one becomes an adult when they truely believe they have to deal with their own actions, and sometimes of others.
I don't just mean someone saying it. They have to know and understand, properly that they're responsible for what they do and will always have to deal with the consequences.

 

[Chikara]

When you decide to become one.

It's something you do for you; you don't have to be old, or have had sex to be considered an adult.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I think some people just don't grow up. They don't mature.

I say 21. Yeah, you're legally an adult at 18 in most places. But, I like 21. You've grown and developed a bit more, you've had some life experience outside of highschool. At that age you should be in the midst of starting you own life

 

[psyanic]

Like for me, one day I realized that I was paying rent to live somewhere and I thought: "I feel like an adult." It's not that it happened the first time I payed rent, but maybe more of how it had become a routine?

I completely agree with this. Being an adult is a gradual process. I almost believe it's a continuous process. It's about having the ability to be completely independent and responsible for yourself.

 

[Black Ice]

When I became 18, I instantaneously became much more mature and more respected by my peers. I fully believe adulthood is based on a completely arbitrary number related to my birthyear.

 

[Alley Cat]

You become an adult when you realize how the world works. When you figure out right from wrong, and act there upon. When you are in full realization of your actions and their consequences, and have reached the level of maturity that allows you to accept this as true. There are adults who will make nothing but stupid choices and act completely immature, and that does not make them a child. They are fully aware of them being a douche/prick/whatever , they just don't care.

 

[femtrooper]

I think people now, especially young people, feel that if I still like video games and doing many things that are associated with youth that they are not adults...which I disagree with. Who cares what your hobbies are? I'm 22, I love video games, I have action figures in my room, yet I am a responsible university student and I am a mature person. My interests have nothing to do with it. People think that you are an adult when you suddenly get the urge to wake up early and read the paper and watch the news...no! I am who I am and I feel like an adult. I have different interests than my parents, but they are 30 years older than me, so of course I do!

I think it is a matter of maturity. You may feel like an adult at 17, or maybe you don't feel like one until you are 25. In Canada, when you are 18, you are an adult, so legally, sure, but it's all mental in my opinion.

 

[Pudz]

I'm not even sure I /am/ an adult, yet. I figure it's when you start to make decisions that shape the outcome of your life, with full knowledge and responsibility of the fact. Maybe I'll be an adult soon...

 

[Nick]

Physically, someone with the ability to procreate (lack of potency and fertilization aside) and nearing the end stages of puberty.
Mentally, someone with a level of maturity that represents someone who is responsible for their own actions and can make them on their own.

I think the law classifies an adult purely based on physical properties, and I think when a lot of people say "Be an adult," it doesn't matter what you are physically, they're talking about mentally.

 

[Unforgettable]

I don't think that an age makes you an adult. It might legally, but that's it. You are an adult when you feel you are. As in responsibility, maturity, so on and so forth. I had to grow up at a young age, but if I could redo it in my terms, I wouldn't be an adult until I had to be.

 

[Livewire]

I'm sorry, but I really would not count a 16, 17, or 18 year old on the same level as me in the maturity and responsibility department. Once you're a voter, tax payer, worker, College student, potential parent, etc, then you can come talk to me.

 

[Nihilego]

I'm sorry, but I really would not count a 16, 17, or 18 year old on the same level as me in the maturity and responsibility department. Once you're a voter, tax payer, worker, College student, potential parent, etc, then you can come talk to me.

Maybe true for you, but I don't think that all people your age are more mature than late teens. You can have some very immature 'adults' or some very mature 'teens' and I don't really think you can judge maturity based on age or things such as paying tax, working, etc. They're just things imposed by law and don't really indicate much about maturity imo.

That said I'm not completely sure about what -does- make you an adult. I'd say it's the ability to live completely independently of another person (note that I didn't say that you have to be living independently; a person living with their parents can still be an adult if they are capable of living alone, but don't at present). Someone who knows how to properly take care of themselves and is pro-active and responsible enough to do what they need to do to take care of themselves is someone who is, in my eyes, pretty mature. I guess that'd be what makes an adult for me.

 

[Dakotah]

I've seen some 12 years olds demonstrating more maturity than some 30 year olds. It really depends on the individual. Each of us matures at a different rate. Age is just the number of years we've been alive on this planet. It speaks nothing to our experiences, which is ultimately what shapes how we mature.

 

[Souma]

I'd say, if there is one particular time where you become an adult in an instant... It is the moment you step in front of an employer, and get accepted for your first job.

But really, becoming an adult is more of a gradual process on Maturity. Personally, I may be 19 years old, and I may behave a whole lot more than some other people, but I personally can't call myself an adult because I still have a lot to learn, mostly toward jobs.

 

[Livewire]

Maybe true for you, but I don't think that all people your age are more mature than late teens. You can have some very immature 'adults' or some very mature 'teens' and I don't really think you can judge maturity based on age or things such as paying tax, working, etc. They're just things imposed by law and don't really indicate much about maturity imo.

Notice how those things are voluntary. You don't have to get a job, you don't have to continue your education in College, you don't have to pay taxes. (You do have to go to jail though!) You can go live in your mom's basement until your 40 and avoid those things, haha. But doing something on your own, in the real world, without mom and dad holding your hand through it, is a mark of actual maturity and the real indicator that you're mature. Something the average 15 or 16 year old is incapable of. I've coached this age group for a few years now, and not one player I had, at a school of thousands, could handle the real world at their age. Then again, they're not supposed to. Once you turn 18, yeah, you can make a case for 18. You still can't legally drink in the US at 18, or rent a car, or get your own health insurance. Now, age & maturity is relevant to your culture and customs, this is true. I'm speaking mostly as a privileged white American male.

 

[CrypticTerror]

When you wake up naked in a field with a headache...Oh number? 21

 

[-Connor97-]

You become an adult whe you r ready to be responsible for your own actions and descisions :DDD or in other words, u become independent and don't have to rely on other ppl xDD

 

[Livewire]

Different cultures also have different age thresholds. In some places you're an adult when you become a teen, but I ted to think in this day and age it's more of a symbolic thing, not a practical, literal thing.