When do you become an adult?

I'm mid 50s and I 'm still not quite there yet . I still did stupid things in my early 30s.

For me I finally felt liked the title full fit ime was n my early sixties...

I felt I started to show some adult tendancies and capabilities in my mid thirties.

When society sets a sensible speed limit or a sensible threshold for adult activity, it only suits the majority of people who occupy most of the demographic, but people at the edges will ALWAYS exist. 

You can only hold people back with laws if the people choose to obey them.

Law isn't Majick although it does sometimes look like it...

As a lifelong pot smoker who alledges to have received actual benefits from my foul addiction, I still think it should be illegal except if prescribed by a doctor for anyone under 18 to use it, on simple health and safety grounds.

I was lucky. if I'd started it at age 14 when my mind was very plastic and before I'd learned any real basic "life decision making" skills periods where I cannot afford the stuff would be very frightening indeed, rather than just mildly annoying, and I probabaly would not get around to having long "time outs" just to remember what the majority of uncannabinated people are experiencing.

 So yeah, let's set sensible boundaires that satisfy the requirement to keep children and young adults safe and give them a legal motivation to avoid enetring the land of bad decisions until they are ready for it!   

I think for me it probably was around 24-25. I like that with the mental health services they see you as in need of more support to this age as well now.. Some people with MH issues may be a bit stunted with their emontional health due to their MH. i am still young for my age, but at like 21 I was still pretty much a child.

Mid to late 40's.....in my case.

I feel like it's finally happening for me in my late 30s. I started the right puberty a few months ago which I'm sure is helping.

hmmm, does adult even exist could be another question if we think on this.

TheCatWoman said:

Should we hold someone back from doing "adult" things because they're not 18 even when they're ready?

If we hold back people from being capable of being an adult until later and later in the name of protecting them, then we are delaying their ability to become adults - essentially creating generations of tweenagers who are being held back until later and later.

I started working when I was 15, was seriously considering getting married at 16 (not that rare an occurrance in Scotland in the 1980s) and was off to University at 17 to a few years of drinking, sexual experimentation and all sorts of things that are denied to people these days by law.

I'm a firm believer that the blanket rules are suffocating and restrict your personal freedoms.

If the person if not mature enough at 17 to be treated as an adult then the education system and parents are failing their children in teaching them life skills and the right mindset to mature.

Labour are pushing for 16 year olds to be treated as adults and vote - is this a cynical ploy to harvest votes from impressionable and vulnerable children or them acknowledging that they should be treated as adults?

What an interesting question. When I look back at how I was in my early 20s I definitely don’t think I was very ‘adult’ at all. I know you’re not talking about physical development here, but I did read something once that said the skull and brain weren’t fully grown until 25. This really struck me as I definitely think I wasn’t acting maturely (whatever that really means) until around that age.

i like that I still find joy in some things like I did when I was a child so in some ways don’t ever want to be a ‘real grown up’