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?

What kittenkipping, DaisyWaldron, RampantIvy and TeenMinusTests all said.

I can't help feeling there is a story behind the question in the opening post, but it isn't that straightforward. You know the legal answer, but that isn't the full story.

As others have said, many of us have been surprised to hit 30, or to take on a mortgage, or to have a child and still not feel "a grown up"

Definitely not 18. I was such a baby at 18. For me personally I was emotionally mature around the age of 25 and that’s when they say the brain is fully developed, so I’m going to say somewhere between 18-25.

@MereDintofPandiculation

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

Many were living as adults sooner, just needed consent to marry. A relative was pregnant and married at 16 and living with her husband who was 19.

@MereDintofPandiculation

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

Yes. I stand corrected

*That was in the late sixties.

When a person no longer does childish things, lives independently and is able to logically think through the consequences of their actions.

Histrically, the age used to be 21. The age was reduced from 21 to 18 in 1970, so not that long ago.
I always understood 21 was because this was the age when wisdom teeth appear (though this is not exact either).
However, at a time when the age was 21, children left school and worked much earlier (often at 14, as in the case of my parents). School leaving age was increased from 15 to 16 in 1972, I think.
So by working (or being apprenticed), they probably gained a degree of maturity, that modern young people, who now stay on at school until 18, possibly do not have.
There is a case for saying that, not leaving school until 18 (actually the end of the year past your 18th birthday), that we delay maturity, but this is arguable, as some will seem very mature and others not.
Personally, I think the age of 18 is about right. There has to be a legal age, otherwise there would be all sorts of arguments, over which children were 'adults' at 16, and who were not 'adults' until 25.

I thoroughly dislike the babying of grown people that goes on. Of course you’re a young adult at 18 but an adult nonetheless.

Naturally, generally, a 20 year old, say, is less mature than a 40 year old, but you never reach an age and something clicks, you change and evolve and learn until the day you die.

32 when my mum died.

@ChainJane

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.

By this logic I'm not an adult at 36 (possibly true, I certainly don't feel like one and often tell my teens to look for a real adult) and won't be until I retire

I agree with PPs that it's a gradual process and there isn't any one defining moment.

Girls 16 boys 61

@5128gap

32 when my mum died.

Same

When became a parent and when my parents died aged 40+

I know many people in their 30s some with kids who are not fully adults in my opinion.

I think everyone's different. I know people who could 'adult' at 17 and people who can't at 30.

When they have responsibilities and they fulfil them without arguing or making a fuss

Women - 30
Men - 45 (or later)

I would say over 21 but agree people will reach that point at different ages. You get some very mature young twentysomethings but also thirtysomethings who still act like 18 year olds.

18

But of you ask my DD who is 20, she will tell you she is still just a child and so very young and, therefore, we can't possibly expect she behaves like an adult..unless it's about going out whenever and wherever she wants and partying with her mates..for that she is an adult.

It varies from person to person.

I don't think I became fully adult until I had a child.

18 seems about right from a legal point of view.

I think that while 18 is the legal age ,many people are nearer 21 when they fully mature TBH! Same as 16 I still feel a little young for Sex (Accept Im probably in a minority of one here!

Legally you’re an adult at 18, but I think you become a socially functioning adult gradually through adolescence. That’s why it amazes me when some posters will insist that, for example, a 15 year old can’t possibly be left alone for an evening. How are teens supposed to become independent when they’re not given any independence?

@BuffySummersReportingforSanity

Eighteen.

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

This with bells on.

It baffles me how adults in their 20's carry on like their teenagers these days and its just accepted as normal behaviour.

I think people become an adult when they need to take responsibility for themselves.

Personally, I think a lot of parents like the idea of 25. About 100 years ago or less, many left school at 14 and got jobs, some got married.

Eighteen is plenty old enough and adults should be giving children the skills to embrace and enjoy adulthood at this age.

I also think (for becoming socially functioning) it sometimes depends basically on how much you need to. I have met people through work who still love at home mid twenties, no responsibility either financial or personal, and parents still picking up/dropping off/cooking their meals. Some of them seem quite immature and childish and I think it’s because they’re still living as a child basically. I had to live as an adult quickly so became an adult more quickly if that makes sense - this is also true of others I know who have moved out of home young/don’t have much parental support.