to think that 21/22/23 isn't that young?

[smellmybacon]

i see it all the time on here how "young" you are if early 20's. i'm 23 and have a 1 year old and live in a house with my partner. most of my friends have children and some are on to their second baby.

i can't imagine still going on nights out all the time or not being settled down. when do you think you start being a grown up if early 20's is young?!

mid 30's.

I'm 26 and have always been quite mature, I am very different to how I was 3-5 years ago though. Lots more worldly experience via work and meeting different people. I still don't feel hugely old. Depends on your circles. I am married but none of my friends are that are my age, none have DC etc either. Most don't have mortgages either. One of my friends seems mega young, she's just very youthful inside and she's 34! I still don't feel like she's got 8 years on me...

I'm 41 and still don't feel properly grown up! 😂

Can't you be grown up AND young?

23 seems young to me (I am over twice your age).
But you live in a house with partner and child, so that seems grown-up.

i don't think anyone ever feels grown up. but when do you stop being labelled as young?

I think I grew up Monday morning. No idea why but I am feeling a little bored with how I use my free time lately!

Yep mid 30s. I'm very glad I didn't have kids until I was older

“i can't imagine still going on nights out all the time or not being settled down.”

I don’t get this though. In this country drinking age is 18. Presumably as you have a one-year-old, you stopped nights out at least two years ago. You are now 23. So... you went on nights out all the time for about 3 years and now you’re done forever?

I don't think early 20s is particularly young but depends on the person. At the age of 23 I was married, had a mortgage, was qualified and working as a teacher.

But it depends on the person. Some people are still immature in their late 20s/early 30s.

Anything under 25 is still practically a child and I regret not realising this when I was that age.

I’m 53 and still don’t think I’m a grown up.

I'm 25. I'd say I'm a young person.
I am very mature and always have been. But that doesn't stop me being a young person. Maturity and age are 2 different things.
Also - I have about 2 school friends who have kids. No one is married. It depends what path you take in life. I find people who go to university settle down later (in my experience)

It's not that young but of course it is young in the grand scheme of things.
At 21, I left my physically and emotionally abusive ex and moved out of the home we shared with our dog. Also at 21, a catch up with my best friend normally involved frozen pizza and a Disney film. You can be both.

I think it depends a lot on individuals and demographics; if you do a degree you're still in education until 21-22 up until that point you might well be at least partially financially dependent on your parents and living at home part of the year. In that situation you're unlikely to feel very grown up. I think if you live in an expensive city like London you're also more likely to be house sharing for longer which lends itself less to adult family life. People often want a few years to enjoy adult life (the independence of having their own space, their own money, the opportunity to travel etc.) before settling down. So all that considered yes I think 21 is very young. That said I wouldn't assume that a 21 year old was immature or incapable of raising a family.

@DeadGood well i starting going out at 16 about 3 times a week for 5 years i feel like i've drank a life time supply of vodka!

Personally I think anything up to the age of 25 is ‘young’, that’s when your brain loses its plasticity (or so I read somewhere). It is incomprehensible to me to have a child at your age. It just seems to me like you miss out on a lot not having those early 20s to be wild and carefree.

It’s all about context OP.

If you said that you were giving up work and retiring and giving up driving, then you are very young.

To have a baby and your own home? Youngish for your generation.

Under 25 to be honest (take the under 25 id policy, young persons railcard etc) under 25 you have not yet lived (hopefully) a 1/3 of you life

So I think at least 25 to stop being young. But after young is middle aged so why wouldnt you want to be young - I would love to be seen as young again

Oh lol I was basically a baby in my 20s. I'm hardly grown up now after my 40th birthday. I'm an idiot.

I think on the whole young people are 'younger' for longer now. IYSWIM?

Harder to get on the property ladder now. Staying in education for longer is more common. Life expectancy is gradually rising and people are starting families later and/or having second families further down the line so you're not 'old' till later on in life now either.

I was married and mortgaged with DD1 by the time i was 23 and had two more DCs before i was 30.

My eldest is now older than i was when i had her and she seems young as far as life experience and heavy responsibility goes compared to me at that age. Neither way is better than the other really.

Depends on the kind of people you’re surrounded by. I’m 28, cannot imagine being married or having kids (I don’t want kids anyway) and not being able to be spontaneous or lie in my pants all weekend watching Netflix. My friends range from my age to mid thirties and none are married or have kids, some are single, some are in relationships but don’t live together. 90% of us rent and share flats with friends but we are in London so our lifestyle is pretty normal for people of our age who moved here for career reasons. Someone aged 21-23 settled with a kid and living with a partner in their own place in London would be quite astonishing. I’m definitely not grown up in the way I behave either, I have a good job and I don’t drink (prefer eating out and socialising in the day to partying) but I’m also a massive slob, don’t keep on top of household chores and order way too many takeaways because I hate cooking. I certainly don’t feel like an adult (my mum says she doesn’t either and she’s nearly 70!)

Well I’m in my 30s, have a professional job, mortgage, husband, 4 kids (2 of whom I had by your age) and I still dance like a crazy in the kitchen and gallop like a horse when I think no one’s looking... “growing up” is overrated!

I had a mortgage at 22 and was married at 26 but I didn’t start to feel properly ‘grown up’ until I was in my 40s. And 21/22/23 still seems very young to me.

My mum on the other hand freely admits that she was born middle aged and stayed that way until she lurched into old age at around 70.

I had a mortgage at 21.

My DC are 20 and 23 and seem very young although both are quite mature.
I'm 58 and have fewer personal cares than ever before.
In my heart I still feel early 20s.

I am 28. I have 2 kids, 10 and 4. Own a house full time job, haven't got round to marriage yet but I'll let him marry me one day 😂. I still feel like I'm quite young. People always said I was very mature for my age when I was younger, but I still sometimes feel like a teenager.