At what age would you say a someone becomes an adult

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Just that really. I know 18 is the legal age but it seems that attitudes have shifted a lot in recent years with regards to what is age appropriate and when so I wondered what age in your opinion you become an adult and why?

18

16
I has own seat in the pub at 16, worked and was responsible for a younger sibling.

I dont get the new 18 is adult.

Eighteen.

I think the increasing infantilisation of older teens and early twenties adults has done them no favours.

@RaindropsonPiglets

16 I has own seat in the pub at 16, worked and was responsible for a younger sibling.

I dont get the new 18 is adult.

You couldn't and still can't sign legal contacts, or if you do there are limits on their legality.

I think around about 25 when your brain is fully developed.

18 FFS

Becoming an adult doesn't happen at the strike of midnight on any birthday. I'd say you start becoming an adult around 13/14 and that becoming continues until any time really between 17- 25( and even after. Maturing is constant really)

I think the current legal status at 18 is about right as a median age at which the majority of people would have matured enough to make adult contributions to society and have the benefits/ responsibilities of adulthood along with. We have to choose an arbitrary age in law at which we deem the majority will be trusted/ responsible etc and I think 18 is a good shout

I think it's a gradual process, and changes in society, particularly in regards to housing and education, mean that some of the signs of adulthood from my generation and the one before me, are a lot less common. Leaving home at 18 and being financially independent isn't a realistic prospect for many young people (or is one which is likely to have negative implications for their future earning power or ability to rent or buy their own home).

To me it is an ongoing process from 16-25. Some will get there sooner than others.
Ideally an adult would be 'adulting' properly:

• financially independent from their parents
• able to make sensible decisions thinking through possible outcomes
• have the skills to live independently (cook, clean, budget etc)
• holding down a job
• not be reliant on parental lifts to go to work etc

NB Before I get shouted at. this doesn't mean that anyone who doesn't meet those criteria isn't an adult. But an 18yo still at college, reliant on parents, not helping out at home isn't in my view a full functioning adult, even if they are legally one.

65.. at least. Definitely not before!

You couldn't and still can't sign legal contacts, or if you do there are limits on their legality.

I had a full bank account opened on my 16th birthday and a credit card.
(I am late 50s). I ran a house and paid all the bills.

At 36 I'm still waiting to become an adult.

@RaindropsonPiglets

16 I has own seat in the pub at 16, worked and was responsible for a younger sibling.

I dont get the new 18 is adult.

It has always been legally 18 in my lifetime. Never 16. (I'm 62 BTW).

I know a great many mumsnetters expect young people to miraculously become responsible adults the second they turn 18, but in real life this doesn't happen.

The brain continues to develop until 25, so IMO a person doesn't become a mature and responsible adult at 18, and certainly not and never has been 16.

I left school at 15 and started full time work the following day, left home at 17 and was running around Belfast as a soldier at 20, I think I grew up and was an adult the day I left school.

@juneybean

At 36 I'm still waiting to become an adult.

Don't hold your breath - I'm 52 and I haven't got there yet

15 to 18.

I'd say once you have are over 25 and have completed one of the following:

• held down a job for long enough to save up for a deposit and bought your own home
• had children and been married for ten years
• reach retirement age

It's different for different people, there is not an arbitrary age where you suddenly become an adult.

Where are people getting the idea from that you are an adult at 15/16?

It simply isn't true.

18. Although seem some men still acting like children and living with mummy into their 30s

Putting aside 'legal adult' threshold.

I can't understand why "being an adult" is important to define.
Give me a purpose and maybe I'll find a definition.

Working class kids are certainly expected to grow up sooner than middle class kids.

rampantivy you’re not quite right about the age of majority being 18 all your lifetime - up to 1969 it was 21.

Leaving school. So between 17-19.

But the parents need to let it happen and prepare them for it. I know 40 year olds not fully adult yet as parents haven't cut the apron strings (not meant in the light hearted 'not grown up yet' posts above way. )

@RampantIvy

Where are people getting the idea from that you are an adult at 15/16?

It simply isn't true.

This thread is clearly not about the legal age of majority or there would be no discussion.

Don't see why there's any real debate, to be honest. It's been 18 since the voting age was dropped in 1971 from 21 to 18. The Children's Act of 2005 defines child as "under the age of 18" and states that a child, whether male or female, becomes a major upon reaching the age of 18 years.

You now have to be in education or training til 18 - so the majority are in school/college til then.

However, claiming you aren't really an adult til you get to about 25 is daft imo. It infantalises people and there does need to be a proper legal age to differentiate between an adult and a child.

Imagine committing a serious criminal offense at 23 and then claiming I'm still a child, really. I didn't know what I was doing!