A Conversation for Talking Point: When Do You Become an Adult?
American Materialism and Adulthood
FG Started conversation Oct 3, 2000
This may seem like an incredibly shallow perspective, but as a friend and I were discussing the other day, you're an adult when you own your own clothes washer and dryer. Going to the Laundromat is a real pain. Of course, that's just my Imperialist American mindset talking...
American Materialism and Adulthood
Fragilis - h2g2 Cured My Tabular Obsession Posted Oct 6, 2003
This isn't even true in all of America. It only seems so.
When I moved to New York City last year, I quickly discovered that the huge majority of the population here use laundry services or laundry rooms centralized in their building. With living space at such a premium, few people want a washer and dryer in their apartment.
The same goes for cars here. While much of America puts great significance on having a driver's license and car, New Yorkers more often use the subway, buses, and cabs. Even going on long journeys, they can take a train, an airplane, or rent a car. I know many adults in their late 20s who've never owned a car, and they don't intend to.
And as for the person who said being able to live on your own is the key to being an adult, think again! You'd have to be extremely rich to live on your own in Manhattan. If you can pay even half the average rent here, you're doing very well. Most native adults live with friends, with their parents, or (ideally) with their spouses or SOs.
Beware of using material definitions for adulthood. Worst case scenario, you are condemming billions of people in less advantaged societies to permanent infancy. That hardly seems fair to me.
American Materialism and Adulthood
Dinnerlady [The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom]William Blake. Top lad:) Posted Oct 6, 2003
and when myself & my husband were travelling SE Asia, it cost about $1 to get your entire rucksack of clothing cleaned, ironed & returned to you in vacuum packed loveliness - you'd have to be mad to do anything else.
I'm more of the thought that owning a pet is the "starting to be adult - thinking of being responsible for more than yourself" key, after which kids are the huge jump.
The rest is just window dressing (which is why I'm so scared of doing the kid thing, but have a very spoilt cat at home).
Melx
American Materialism and Adulthood
FG Posted Oct 6, 2003
Please note, Fragilis, the use of the word "shallow" in my comment. Let's not be overly serious here.
American Materialism and Adulthood
Dinnerlady [The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom]William Blake. Top lad:) Posted Oct 7, 2003
Aaaa, but you may have had a cat when you were 6, but I bet you didn't take sole responsibility for feeding it - I have memoreis of my mum screeching at me when a teenager "Your cat would die if I didn't feed it for you, you're so irresponsible".
I rest my case, m'lud
American Materialism and Adulthood
Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 Posted Jan 6, 2004
This is a fantastic philosophical argument, isn't it? Lots of children get taken into care because the "adult(s)" they live with don't feed them or look after them properly.
Is adult a positive concept concerning responsibility and trustworthiness or is it about the attainment of rights, or is it something very different?
Is being an adult the same as being grown up?
American Materialism and Adulthood
Northern Boy (lost somewhere in the great rhubarb triangle) <master of Freudian typos> Man or Badger? Posted Jan 6, 2004
oh i think being an adult and being a grown up can be very different things.
Adulthood is a state of physical maturity whereas being grown up is more about your behaviour.
But as my dad always says "i may be getting older but i refuse to grow up"
American Materialism and Adulthood
Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 Posted Jan 6, 2004
So do I. A woman friend asked me what to buy her boyfriend for Christmas. I told her a toy. She bought him a radio controlled aeroplane and he was absolutely delighted. Just as I would have been.
American Materialism and Adulthood
Northern Boy (lost somewhere in the great rhubarb triangle) <master of Freudian typos> Man or Badger? Posted Jan 6, 2004
ooh i want a remote control aeroplane too!
as the old saying foes "what seperates the men from the boys is the price of their toys"
American Materialism and Adulthood
Tonsil Revenge (PG) Posted Jan 6, 2004
I think you become an adult when you start to lie to children and yourself.
American Materialism and Adulthood
Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 Posted Jan 6, 2004
Have you ever asked your child who ate the last biscuit?
American Materialism and Adulthood
Tonsil Revenge (PG) Posted Jan 7, 2004
Lying to someone else is pretty normal.
Particularly if you get away with it.
But to attempt to fool someone who cannot punish you and to successfully fool yourself into believing that you have the right to, is an adult thing.
I pretty much expect my child to lie to me. I also expect her to eventually learn to do a better job of it. That way I can feel better about the lies I've told her. Until then, I feel that I have taken advantage of her inexperience.
American Materialism and Adulthood
Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 Posted Jan 7, 2004
Has anyone ever attached a lie detector to a child in such a situation? I'm not sure they always distinguish between truth and lies when they are very young. If that IS the case then they were successfully lying to themselves, while at the same time believing they were telling you the truth.
Key: Complain about this post
American Materialism and Adulthood
- 1: FG (Oct 3, 2000)
- 2: Fragilis - h2g2 Cured My Tabular Obsession (Oct 6, 2003)
- 3: Dinnerlady [The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom]William Blake. Top lad:) (Oct 6, 2003)
- 4: Fragilis - h2g2 Cured My Tabular Obsession (Oct 6, 2003)
- 5: FG (Oct 6, 2003)
- 6: Dinnerlady [The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom]William Blake. Top lad:) (Oct 7, 2003)
- 7: Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 (Jan 6, 2004)
- 8: Northern Boy (lost somewhere in the great rhubarb triangle) <master of Freudian typos> Man or Badger? (Jan 6, 2004)
- 9: Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 (Jan 6, 2004)
- 10: Northern Boy (lost somewhere in the great rhubarb triangle) <master of Freudian typos> Man or Badger? (Jan 6, 2004)
- 11: Tonsil Revenge (PG) (Jan 6, 2004)
- 12: Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 (Jan 6, 2004)
- 13: Tonsil Revenge (PG) (Jan 7, 2004)
- 14: Vestboy II not playing the Telegram Game at U726319 (Jan 7, 2004)
- 15: Fragilis - h2g2 Cured My Tabular Obsession (Jan 7, 2004)
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