When is the cut-off mark for being young?

I'm 35 and work in a care home. My residents say I'm barely more than a child! That I've got so much still ahead of me. I think it depends on who you talk to as to whether you're considered old or young.

Depends entirely on my age!

Used to think 40 was ancient but now I'm 42 I still can't seem to accept I'm anything other than young, and I still see people around my age as young, despite the fact that some of us have adult kids by now!

I think I'm going to hit my 90 and still think I'm young at this rate, unlike those old fogeys who are 91

I think young is up to 25. Beyond that age, people are no longer young.

Relationships, probably 3 years.

I would say a ‘young adult’ is 21-26. 27-45 is adult. 46-65 is middle to late middle age. 66-75 is ‘older’. 76-demise is elderly. Though thinking of Joanna Lumley (79), Meryl Streep (76) and Susan Sarandon (79) as elderly just seems wrong.

Had a similar discussion with a friend recently and we decided "old" is the age you stop enjoy being dizzy - we were watching our DD's at soft play for context ....

I’d probably say “aw they’re only young” for someone up to 25. After that most adults are working, have their own house and are around the typical age for marriage and having children (late 20s to 30). I think middle age is probably after 40. Doesn’t mean you have to stop having fun and act old, but you’re most likely into the second half of your life at this point. (Tin hat on, I know a lot of people like to say middle age is 50s or later).

Under 21 you're a kid. Under 25 you're a young adult. 25-40 adult. 40-60 middle aged. 60-70 older adult. 70+ old.

Around 25 I think. Although I do consider anyone in their 20s fairly young.

Up to a certain point i think it is a life stage thing more than an age thing.

I was married at 24 had my first child at 25 and my second at 26. I would class that as an adult.

A 24 is year old that is single, lives with their parents, goes clubbing, etc, is more in the young adult life stage category iyswim..

Im 52 now and firmly middle aged. (Still waiting to feel like a proper grown up)

To me, old or older adult would be 60+ in good physical shape and elderly is back to more of a life stage / condition descriptor with it being 65+ with debilitating age related conditions requiring care and support.

I will let you know when I get there. Am 57.

There is an element of it being dependent on the person. And I think this arrested development thing is actually pretty recent. My DM was married at 21, as were most of her friends, they were all parents in their 20s and empty nesters in their 40s. My 20-something colleagues though are all still living at home with their parents! That's why I think under 30 is still a young adult these days.

But that's not universal experience. My parents had me when they were 21 and I don't think it made them particularly adult to be perfectly honest.
At 30 I was a single girl living in London, partying most nights of the week and showing up for my relatively senior job in a creative field. By 35 I was a uni student with no responsibilities apart from studying. And I always thought "I can't possibly have a child because I still feel like a child". This settled by the time I was in my 40s and I no longer feel like a child but the transition was pretty imperceptible.
Physiologically, the frontal lobe is not fully developed until a person is around the age of 25-26, so anyone younger than this is still adolescent in developmental terms.

18-19 is still a teenager, 21-25 and generally closer to 25 for adulting.
relationship wise; I would think that even if you only meet up weekly by 2 years your in a relationship, but to me it gets blurry when after 2 years they still live apart. I don’t find that being much of a “couple”.

I'd say someone under 25 is a young person. I agree there needs to be a transition, so 18 is an adult but they will probably still need support and will be making some mistakes they learn from. By the age of 25, I'd expect someone to be employed, paying their own way and making sensible decisions with consideration for their future.
I couldn't put a time frame on a relationship being serious, I see it more in milestones. Once a couple are living together it's serious.

I consider a young adult to be 18 to around 24. I see that in people I know and people I work with. It seems less acceptable to not have your shit together after 25.

I was an established adult at 20 (own property, totally savvy and switched on etc).

BUT everyone older treated me like i was an idiot 'oh, what does she know' until I was in my 30's.

Guessing the point where older adults finally start to value your opinion is when you are officially established.

Then, a few years later the young ones think the know better and you are officially old and past it 😆.

37 is not a young mum! Crikey on a bikey.🤣

When I was 38, most of my colleagues were 25- 28ish and they had never been Rick Rolled or had seen Friends. They were young & I was old!

I would think about 30. It’s not that 18-29 are ‘kids’, but 30 felt like a watershed for me.

Oh I reckon 29 and under! But I was recently having a conversation with a friend who just had her first baby at 37 (we’re the same age) and she described herself as a young mother! I was pretty gobsmacked 🤣

I think it depends on context so for e.g. if you died in your 40s that would be young but if you had your first baby in your 40s that would be old.

I think you’re interpreting ‘young’ differently from other people. Nobody is saying that under 30 you’re still childlike. They’re saying it’s a young adult… which means someone who is an adult but newly. Young is a relative word…

To me I’d say you’re a young adult 18 until 25, then you’re an adult until 45ish which is when middle age begins.

That said you don’t have to be young free and single at any age if you don’t want. I met DH at 18, got together, we’ve completed 4 degrees between us since, own a house, have had established careers, got married etc. We have done really well in our careers, travelled to over 40 countries, lived in Japan for a while. Stayed together and monogamous the whole time.

Stop trying to neatly box things up into shoulds and coulds and what’s expected.

I think up to about 28.