You are now entering adulthood

How do you distinguish adulthood from childhood?

Mine (a few):
People won't hesitate to ask you if you're married
You are expected to have a familiarity with and a taste for different alcohols
Discussion about what you pay for your groceries tends toward the passionate

From my most recent journal entry:

summation: Adults do not harbor under the delusion that their daily personal problems are particularly special, unique, or of epic and/or tragic proportion.


[Edited on Mar 13, 2006 by HyenaHell]

Than I know a lot of 30 and 40 y.o. children...

don't harsh on our groove, MAN.

It's when you realize they music they play on the radio really is aimed at kids and you never noticed before because you were one. Now that you are not a kid it all seems so obvious.

Today's bands have no talent, and unlike the early punk scene, they have no charisma. They merely have excellent agents and marketing divisions capable of convincing teenagers to spend the obscene sums of money that their over permissive parents attempt to purchase affections with.

/cynical rant

My wife and I established that full adulthood is achieved when one can keep ice in the freezer. It's something our parents did flawlessly, and something I've only recently mastered with the purchase of a fridge with an ice-maker.

Recently, I was in a discussion debating when new climbers stopped being new. The camp I fell into suggested it's not linked to how hard you climb or length of time you've been climbing, or number of routes under your belt. It's when you start working as an equal partner and taking responsibility for yourself. It's when you have the tools and ability to plan climbs and take them on, dealing with the inherent issues as they arise.

I'd say it's largely the same criteria between childhood and adulthood. There are a few people that may be adults in my book by the time they're in their late teens. Other people I know are still dependent upon others for most of their needs into their 20s and 30s. If you're responsible for your major life choices and own up to it, if when shit hits the fan you're thinking of how you can deal with the situation rather than looking for someone to bail you out, you're there. It's certainly a spectrum, and we all need help occasionally, but self-sufficiency and ice are the big items for me.

Oh, what a wank.

[Edited on Mar 14, 2006 by Anton]

you were 12 in 1992.

When I saw the thread title, I added the following in my mind:

"Congratulations. Now you're REALLY fucked."

And Punk was 1977.

i started to realize i was growing up when the concept of gas getting cheaper brought me near to sexual satisfaction.

Err. . .that was my point.

Dude! Punk was in '77! SERIOUSLY!

Just because Punk was in 1977 doesn't mean anyone born past that time is completely clueless about it, just because they 'weren't there'.

There are two criteria that ultimately decide if you are an adult(this is if you're a man):
1)You and another man discuss the possible causes of a problem with one of your cars and what kind of long term problems each cause can lead to.
2)You initiate a conversation with someone about what kind of benefits package is offered by their job. If you have discussed either a 401k of yours or theirs, this is the ultimate deciding factor.

I wasn't there when Dylan came along, but I still love him more than almost any artist, in any medium, ever. I can even claim to have some understanding of his impact on music. What I can't do is claim that every artist has no talent and gets by solely on good PR and cynical consumerism and no artists today are even the slightest bit as good as Dylan.

when the teenagers throwing a ball around in front of your house say 'thank you, sir' without a trace of sarcasm when you throw the ball back to them after it's landed in your yard.

I'm the guy that yells at people for riding their bikes on the sidewalk or for doing Hollywood rolls on right turns. I get up at 7 every day whether I set my alarm or not. I find myself muttering the phrase "fucking kids" under my breath at least once every other day.

I have the body and brain of a 20 year old.

That wasn't my point. I was mocking the guy for his music criticism. Claiming that the music youngsters listen to today is so much shittier than "real punk" is lame...even lamer when coming from someone who has no real claim on the era in question.

[Edited on Mar 13, 2006 by PointBlank]

I hear that, man.

Also maybe the day you read and understand income tax codes and can discuss them at length. (although not necessarily by choice)

The day you realize most other college kids are actually pretty damn annoying.

I didn't claim that punk was better in the day. I was actually making a reference to the fact that punk in '77 is often thought of as being a movement by a group of youngsters that couldn't play their instruments. They were charismatic where they may not have been talented. Of course, there was some talent, and there were other bands that were merely lovable characters to the counter-cultural movement.

As for the relatively contemporary scene there are acts like Sum 41 that I just couldn't stand. Franz Ferdinand ... I believe that their success has been a product of marketing. Rap/Hip Hop has generated some real stinkers as well ... that song Grillz that I can't seem to get away from ... Perhaps I've lost touch with my hip side, but I can't imagine that it goes anywhere without all-star publicists.

I will concede that I poorly phrased my first sentence by saying "today's bands" rather than addressing s5's comment to which I was replying a bit more specifically.

I do enjoy modern artists. Hell, Bad Religion is as far back in time as I go with my favorites as listed on my profile.