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I just don't see any accurate and fair way to make a blanket definition for adulthood, let alone an arbitrary age below which certain privileges and freedoms are restricted.
Their adults when mommy and daddy are no longer supporting them. Sometimes they become adults based on wise choices, and sometimes their parents have to essentially "cut them off" and force them to become adults.
Scientific evidence is that brain wiring is not entirely complete until one's mid-twenties, particularly with respect to properly connecting actions with consequences.
In an ideal world, the legal privileges and responsibilities of majority would be conferred upon someone when they meet some objectively determined criteria that demonstrates responsibility. In the world we actually live in, my personal judgment is that reducing the age of majority from 21 to 18 in the US was a serious mistake, particularly in that current parenting trends seem to be producing children less equipped to exhibit the impulse control and empathy required to fully take their place in the adult world. I would increase the drinking age at least back to 21, as well as the age of medical consent and a few other things. Politically, it may be easier to just return the age of majority to 21 across the board.
The age of majority was originally lowered to 18 in the 1970s because 18 year olds were subject to the draft and the reasoning was that they should therefore have the right to vote. Or that is the argument that carried the day in the US, even though the draft itself was eliminated early in the latter half of that decade. There was also pressure from the fact that most other Western democracies had lowered the age of majority to 18 or 19 as early as 1950, and, as usual, the US was bringing up the rear on that trend. And the young were agitating for it, of course.
My take on all this is that this is one of the few areas where the US was well advised to be retrograde, and, besides, I don't think the draft was ethical or that 18 year olds should be turned into cannon fodder. We should have kept the age of majority at 21, AND not subjected 18, 19 and 20 year olds to military service. In my opinion. Obviously the military-industrial complex would not sit still for that, though.
I always felt, if your old enough to join the military and hold a Carbine, your old enough to be a man, instead of crying for mommy and missing home, some do fail, most make it work and learn to drive on.. And when you think about the older guys who lied about their age during World War II at sixteen or younger, there is some guys who truly are men and Warriors at a very young age.
I always felt, if your old enough to join the military and hold a Carbine, your old enough to be a man...
The age of majority, and the age at which people were subject to the draft, are arbitrarily selected ages that have nothing to do with how (im)mature someone actually is or what they are capable of, particularly in specific instances. Your argument has more merit if someone voluntarily joins the military, arguably, but again, I cite the science that says that people under the age of 25 are impaired in their ability to connect actions with consequences. An adolescent will romanticize adulthood and its trappings and yearn for it, little realizing the full implications of the responsibility and the hard work that come with it. They will yearn for marriage or at least the proverbial "room without windows or doors" in which they will make love 24/7 forever and never have to argue about anything or work anything out, literally ignoring the realities of relationships and the workaday world.
Many children can become full fledged adults by their early teens, many adults will exhibit childishness their entire lives, and there is a spectrum in between those two extremes. We seem to have decided as a society that on average most people can assume adult responsibilities / consequences by the age of 18. I would say most SHOULD be able to but for whatever reason far too many don't. That is the basis for which I argue for going back to 21 as the age of majority. Not for the purpose of coddling them, but to protect society from their profligacy.
I do acknowledge that it is a balancing act between denying unearned privileges and enabling an endless childhood. My thinking is based on the science, which says that no matter how children are raised or mis-raised, many are simply not fully capable of handling adult responsibilities, biologically speaking, until their brains are "fully baked" in their mid-twenties. In addition, there is no reason to be in such a dad-burned hurry, given the extensive demands of higher education in the modern world. The median age of first marriage has risen to around 28 in this country, and it's no coincidence that's about the time they finish graduate school and start to get established in a career. Combine that with rising life expectancies and I see no reason to afford youth the full range of adult options and burdens when they are still babes in the woods at 18. I wish I had not had those options open to me when I was that age. I was nowhere near ready for it myself.
If we treat children according to what they're capable of doing (a LOT) and respect their intelligence (it's very high), and give them responsibilities, jobs, duties (it's not "child labor," it's the real world), they will thrive and mature in a healthy manner.
Pubescent teens really can be adults...seems to me that we hold them back for control purposes, so we can keep them in school (aka daycare) until age 18, freeing us up to be out earning money. Meanwhile the kids are restless and bored, full of potentially useful energy that's going to waste. They get into video games, drugs, alcohol, sexual mischief because THEY'RE RESTLESS & BORED & UNDERSTIMULATED. These kids need to be put to work. It's not cruel, it's productive. It's the stuff of life.
Don't forget to include when their bodies can handle adult things, physically & mentally
You can have a mature 9-year-old, but you don't want it drinking.
In Europe, parents often let their kids have wine in moderation with a meal, they turn out just fine.
This extreme zero-tolerance-ism and lawsuit-esque fear-mongering needs to go, I can't put it any other way.
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