One of my pet peeves is the extended adolescence much of society expects from young adults. Not much is expected of 20 somethings. It’s accepted to be a decade of partying and bad decisions. Nobody is expected to get serious about a career, marriage or starting a family. In fact, it’s often considered a mistake for a young adult to be serious about those things.
Yet somehow it’s perfectly acceptable for 18 year old adults to serve in the military. At that age you aren’t considered wise enough to rent a car but are expected to kill or die for your country. Just as weird is the fact that it’s legal for 18 year olds to act in porn.
Personally, I treat and expect 18 year olds and especially those in their 20s, to be and act like adults. It would be hypocritical for me not to.
At 18 I was a full time firefighter running into burning buildings. I was buying land at that age -to add to the land I earned at 16. My lovely wife and I both got married when we were only 20. That was 44 years ago so we much have been mature enough to know what we wanted.
It does young adults no favors to treat them like little kids.
-Sixbears
I might suggest that you're an exception even as far back as you were 18.
ReplyDeleteI see daily evidence that some 30 year olds are just children acting in an "adult" world.
Thus, perhaps the confusion that men can menstruate and such.
Children and unstable people override facts with feelings.
If we keep treating them like children they will keep acting like children.
DeleteHow do you treat the irrational feeling trumps reality folks?
DeleteI'm not going to let their feelings cause me and mine harm.
I treat people how they act, regardless of their age. I was a tearaway in my 20s, not for societies' expectations but because of personal demons. Then I got wise to myself. Still try to maintain a healthy connection to a childlike state though.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad way to treat people. Glad you got your demons sorted out. That can happen at any age.
DeleteYou're quite correct. It does no good treating an adult like a child, nor does treating a child like an adult. If an 18 year old appears unwanted at my door I treat them like an adult. If an 18 year old pouts and acts entitled, I treat them like children. It's a sad state of affairs that our society has created children that are capable of the irrationality of the adult. It's part of the syndrome the Navaho call Oiyatskatsi (Yakutsk) Life out of Balance.
ReplyDelete