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.

This has changed massively in my lifetime. When I was growing up in a very working class Midlands town in the 80s, most people left school at 16, got jobs, were financially independent of their parents by 19 & were married with kids & a mortgage by 24. 35 year olds were, by any sensible definition, middle-aged.

Now, it’s completely different. Mass higher education has effectively extended childhood (in terms of not being financially independent) into the mid 20s and the enormous cost of housing has meant very few people can afford to buy a home or start a family until well into their their 30s. Unless they are living on benefits, of course…

i think under 40 is young.

At 27, I no longer see my DC as very young. My DF is 93, and definitely geriatric. DH and I will both turn 70 this year and while I still feel youthful enough to be fairly energetic, the cataracts I just had fixed prove otherwise!

Young adult 18
Adult 30
Mature Adult 50

Up to 26

Developmentally you are. We now know that the brain is still developing until early 30s

I would say that young adult is 18 - 30ish, which around the time that the brain becomes fully developed.

Adult is ~30 - 44

Middle aged 45 - 59

Older adult 60 - 74

Elderly 75+

It depends. I had 3 DCs, a mortgage, a career and was divorced by 28.

My youngest DC is 22 and has zero responsibilities apart from attending college/part time job. Her lifestyle is similar to mine was at 15.

This is so interesting! I suppose my original question was a bit linked to the concept of “failure to launch” and when you can be seen as legitimately still wandering about versus the age at which people are gonna start writing sniffy threads about you on the Internet 😂