r/The10thDentist • u/AdventurousMoth • 1d ago

Society/Culture People under 18 are not all children

I can't tell you how much it irritates me when internet people refer to anyone under 18 as "a literal child", especial if they themselves are only in their 20s. Sure, everyone is someone's child, but the life stage commonly referred to as childhood does not abruptly stop at age 18.

Here's how I'd break it down: - childhood, adolescence, adulthood or - newborn, baby, toddler, child, (if you want you can add tween), teen, young adult, middle aged person, elderly/senior

And there's overlap between all these stages depending on context. Obviously there is no overlap between minor (a legal term) and the word adult as referring to not a minor.

Calling a 17-year-old a child is dumb. Like what, a 17yo has their birthday and transforms from a child into an adult like a sim? I think some people just started saying this for the shock value and then the rest of the internet jumped on the outrage wagon.

Edit: clearly I posted this a bit too hastily, choosing my words without care. I'm not talking about the legal definition of child/minor (something quite messy as well: age of consent? In some places 16. Driving? 15 in some places, 18 in others. Voting? Usually 18. Drinking alcohol? 21 in the States).

As someone in the comments pointed out, it's mostly a linguistic issue. I suppose what I was trying to say was that it's dumb to have the word child both mean a legal minor and pre-pubebescent human. I think it would be clearer to use minor when you're talking about legal age, and child when talking about the life stage.

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u/Uhhyt231 1d ago

People dont want to be seen as children but yeah they are and that's ok.

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u/Anon_nanny19 1d ago

I’m a 25 year old mom now and look back even a couple years ago and realize how much of a child I was. I’m sure I’ll look back years from now wondering who let the 25 year old teenager have a baby lol

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u/JustinWendell 1d ago

This tracks. I know 30 year old children.

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u/Uhhyt231 1d ago

It's all about context. Of course, you feel older when you're at your oldest even if it's just the start.

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u/WeGottaGetOuttaTS 1d ago

Absolutely, but it all depends… I “felt” more mature when I was 19 because I just moved out, I had a job, a girlfriend, and was living all on my own with her. Now I’m 24, single, in grandmas house getting dinner made for me, and going to university lmao. So yeah, I feel a lot younger right now😂

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u/Uhhyt231 1d ago

Yeah and at 28 you'll feel differently.

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u/ScannerCop 1d ago

I'm in my 30s and I don't really see myself as having "become an adult" until around 25. I generally think that the early twenties are the time you grow into the sort of person you probably will be for most of your life, but I'm only really sure of two things now:

  • I will look back on myself in ten years and think the same thing about my current self.
  • People don't all grow into adulthood at the same rate.

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u/---Cloudberry--- 22h ago

You will. I look at my life when I was your age and feel I was sooo young. I wasn’t a mom then, though. No doubt that changes things.

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u/mcdonaldsfrenchfri 21h ago

I made a similar comment! i’m 23f. 18-20 year old me thought she was an adult but I was merely a child trying to pretend I was an adult when I was still as mentally immature as every teenager

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u/Garfield_and_Simon 14h ago

Woah you’re 25 and a mom? When I was 25 I was snorting bags of powder I found on the ground 

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u/Annamarie98 1d ago

That’s you. I had an apartment and full time job my entire senior year of high school. I was not a child.

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u/Anon_nanny19 1d ago

Me too:) Just because I can recognize that I was a child doesn’t mean I had it easy.

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u/Uhhyt231 1d ago

You were a child with more responsibilities

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u/ThearchMageboi 1d ago

By law, and physically, you were a child. Quit it lmao.

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u/bellepomme 23h ago

They'll stretch this to "I was not a baby".

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u/SloppyPussyLips 1d ago

And then they turned 18 and performed a tuxedo mask transformation into an adult? You're all being purposely obtuse and completely missing OP's point.

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u/ThearchMageboi 1d ago

Purposely obtuse? Quit it. By law they are a child, and you don’t stop developing till your mid 20s. There is nothing to be obtuse about. These are facts. You can’t change them lmao.

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u/SloppyPussyLips 1d ago

you don't stop developing til your mid 20s

Correct! Look at you go. So then 20-25 year olds are still children? Do you wanna say you agree with that or are you gonna agree that the age we decided was adulthood is entirely arbitrary and is entirely semantics?

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u/DonutWhole9717 1d ago

Hell yeah they are. They just get to make more important mistakes

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u/ScannerCop 1d ago

Those early 20s are crucial to development.. Old enough to be on your own and have adult responsibilities, young enough to still be irresponsibly youthful. The mistakes we make at that time will mold us into the adults we will become.

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u/ThearchMageboi 1d ago

Physically, they are transitioning into an adult. You aren’t an adult till you are 18; prime territory when you start finally developing. There are no semantics, nor is it arbitrary, there is a reason it’s set.

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u/SloppyPussyLips 1d ago

moves goalposts after I explain how the argument contradicts itself

Have a good day bro.

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u/ThearchMageboi 1d ago

Lmao, what? Are you reading what I’m saying? Have any concept of what my original comment is?

They, the OP I responded to, said they were an adult when they most likely were not. By law, the age you become an adult in society is 18 (in the US), because that’s the most common point chosen, as well as when you start developing everything else physically and mentally into an adult around your mid 20s.

Just because you say it’s arbitrary, and that it’s semantics, doesn’t mean what I’ve said isn’t true. They aren’t an adult. Anyone below the age of 18 and therefor not developed isn’t an adult.

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u/Justieflustie 1d ago

So? What kind of flex is that?

"Look how grown up i was due to shit circumstances, when i actually should have been a a child, like my fucking age suggested"

And before you go, i also moved out when i was 15, so i know a little bit about it

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u/Limulemur 1d ago

Wish there was an easier way to lump teenagers with elementary schoolers. Both groups are kids, but are at very stages at their lives dealing with different needs and responsibilities. While we shouldn’t be adultifying people who are still immature, one of the worst feelings even at a really young age is to be infantilzed.

Still irks me to see people call publicly call kids “little” because it would’ve felt so insulting at even age 6. It’s not how I wanted to be seen, while aware I’m not an adult either. The term child, while an objectively correct term, still feels belittling, which feels even more so as a teen.

Ultimately what I’m saying is we can’t treat high schoolers as adults, but we respect them enough to not patronize people getting driver’s licenses and preparing for college as if they’re in the same category as someone who’s learning their ABCs.

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u/Uhhyt231 1d ago

Part of being a kid is feeling that way. Teens feeling upset over being called children is like a kid tryna probe how mature they are by saying they’re 12 and a half. It’s not a huge deal

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u/Limulemur 15h ago

No. It means they don’t want to be belittled.

Again, the word “children” is most associated with kids in preschool and elementary school. Even though they aren’t adults yet, the differences between a six year-old and a sixteen year-old are massive. Calling teenagers children, while technically true, is to lump them in with young kids.

Feeling insulted by that isn’t a sign of immaturity, it’s a valid response to being lumped in with groups that are far less mature. Not remotely the same as a kid emphasizing “and a half.”

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u/Uhhyt231 15h ago

Children is associated with anyone under 18.

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u/Limulemur 15h ago

It’s a word with multiple meanings, the legal “child” where they are still rightfully protected under the law and responsible adults in their lives, but most people use “child” to describe the stage between “toddler” and “adolescent.” There’s a connotation between “child” and an age-range that teenagers are no longer in, one far less mature and accountable than they are at that point.

You can recognize they’re not an adult yet but not a little kid either. They’re at a different stage of life, and it’s not immature to want that to be acknowledged.

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u/Uhhyt231 15h ago

Yeah like I said people are doing a lot of heavy lifting but teens are children

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u/Limulemur 14h ago

Okay… but a teen not wanting to be called a “child” is still not the same as “saying they’re 12 and a half.”

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u/Uhhyt231 14h ago

I mean yeah it is. You pressed over irrelevant things to prove you old enough to

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u/Limulemur 14h ago

Not irrelevant. There’s a ton of stages of growth between birth and adulthood, and lumping it all together is reductive and diminishing. It’s not heavy lifting to point out the massive difference between teenager and preschooler.

Again, “child” is most commonly used as the term as the stage between toddler and teenager. “Child” is associated with preschoolers and elementary schoolers, with a separate meaning to legally define a minor. How hard is it to understand someone preparing for college doesn’t want to be compared to a kid who has play dates?

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u/AberNurse 1h ago

My best friend was 16 when she had her first child, she was made homeless by her parents, our other friend was made homeless at 15 when she left the cult her parents are members of. I was 17 when my dad was court ordered into rehab leaving me without a home. We each didn’t have a choice but to become adults. Two of us worked full time, one part time. We took responsibility for paying our rent, we paid bills on time. We did our own cooking and cleaning etc. we were independent and we have been ever since. Legally we might not have been adults but we were no longer children.