When is the cut-off mark for being young?

[OneOfEachPlease]

Not a thread about a threat, but inspired by several threads! Am I being unreasonable not to understand at what point do you change from being young to being an established adult? And am I being extra unreasonable, not to understand the consensus on how long a relationship is before it’s serious.

Obviously all of these things are a bit “how long is a piece of string”, but there seems to be a real divergence about when people are young, free and single and should be prioritising their career and when they are at the stage in life where they should be a proper adult who’s got some responsibilities etc. So just hoping to garner views!

I’ll go first. My view is that people are adults basically as soon as they time out of being somewhere between 18 and 21. But that everybody needs help sometimes and you can’t expect people to be completely independent overnight. And I think any relationship which stretches more than 18 months is serious but that does not mean it’s time to propose! I think that I think there are more stages between casual/single and marriage.

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

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.

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).

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 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.

Oh my God, I used to love being dizzy so much! My local park didn’t have a roundabout and I used to live for visiting places where there was a roundabout so I could just spin. Also, jumping! If I jump off something high these days, I always regret it. But I could definitely still jump off things and lie on the floor for hours and all of that in my 20s.

I am making myself sound approximately 130 years old, I am 41!

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

Relationships, probably 3 years.

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'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.

Im 52 and im young

I don't know as it's all subjective but I certainly felt middle aged and past my best at 40. Suddenly, everything I could comfortably eat in the past made me put on weight - even cheese sandwiches and a Mr Kipling small apple pie, my usual exercise routines stopped working, and I noticed I completely stopped getting any admiring glances!

Old is ten years older than you are. So if I'm 70, old is 80+. But when I'm 80, old is 90+.

I remember feeling as though I was getting past it at 23, but that was the early 90s. Now I have seen a change in the young people I know, between 25 and 27. So I'd say 26 you start to become a proper adult.

Surely you're young "for" something rather than being plain young.

For example, 45 is relatively old for having your first child. But 45 is very young for retirement.

24 is old for starting university. But 24 is fairly young for getting married and having children.

And so on

I was 28 when I got a particular job and I was the youngest person they had ever hired in that role (just the sort of thing people choose to do when close to retirement).

But if I was a professional footballer I'd have been considered old.

So there's no such thing as intrinsically young or old, just relative. Imo.

I think of anyone in their twenties as very young, but of course, that changes as I get older. I remember in my teens thinking 25 sounded so old!

Middle age is always about ten years from my current age, so about 58! Elderly is 90+, as I don't think of my parents as elderly.

I think some people muddle young with immature. You might be married with kids, a mortgage and a professional job at 29, which would still make you young.

I totally agree with this.

And I’m stunned by other posts suggesting “young adult” up to mid-thirties. How things change! I remember being appalled that my pregnancy with my youngest would be classed as a “geriatric pregnancy” because I would turn 35 just before the birth.

But OP wasn’t asking about a general sense of young compared to old. She said when do you go from being young to being an “established adult”. You can’t think that is 50.

I would say up to about 25 is a young adult.
When you get to my age everyone else seems young!

But "young" doesn't mean "child".

Wouldn't that mean 'young' as in 'new to' something?

After 27

You're in your late 20s, you're no longer a child or a young adult

About 20-25ish I think. If you are still able to get free condoms from the sexual health clinic then you are still young.

Serious relationship really depends. Some people will still be casually dating after 5 years and some will be married with 3 dc.

Totally depends on social circle! In my world (millennial professionals living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, mostly as expats), 37-42 is normal for first baby, and 35 and under is considered young. In the sense that not one of us will be having a baby by 35. Also, most who have/want a baby are/will be one-and-done, and the proportion of couples who are child-free by choice is much higher than the national average.

I know that that’s VERY different from a lot of other social circles.

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