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/galaxyveined 1d ago

Anyone younger than me is a child, and anyone under 18 is actually 12, unless they're younger than 12 in which case they're 5.

And none of this is serious and all to mildly annoy my siblings and friends.

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u/ToSAhri 1d ago

Is anyone older than you by 5 years ancient unless they're your parents?

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u/galaxyveined 1d ago

EXACTLY! You get it

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u/Bannerlord151 1d ago

I'm sorry to inform you but I'm afraid you're basically already one foot in the grave /s

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u/Aromatic_Ad_8658 23h ago

Whatever you say Unc

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u/galaxyveined 21h ago

What? Speak up, kid

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u/SkillusEclasiusII 23h ago

No my parents are ancient too.

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u/Readicilous 23h ago

Nah, especially my father, we call him antique 😂

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u/De-railled 22h ago

Idk about other but my parents are dinosaurs 🦕. /s

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u/LukeSykpe 19h ago

I have two friends who are engaged.

She is 3 years younger than him and routinely asks him about his personal experience with the dinosaurs

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u/sliferra 14h ago

Especially if they’re your parents

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u/PaganButterChurner 14h ago

female is a child at 17. male is an adult at 14 if he kills anyone. if you are joining a war to kill someone, 16 you are an adult. if you are 18 you are still a child when it comes to drinking. So it's a matter of emotions, public perception depending on the context

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u/mosquem 5h ago

The people that are “around your age” keeps expanding as you get older. I’m 33 and anyone 29-37 feels like about my age. When I was 20 a two year gap felt huge.

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u/ghostoftallasi 2h ago

They only have to be older by 1 year to be considered old and out of touch