What are the age-mileposts where you live?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Pretty simple really. At what age are you allowed to/no longer allowed to do things where you live? I’ll start (I live in Norway, will give numbers for Denmark as well, since i grew up in DK)

School starts: age 6, +/- a year, depending on season of birth and the wishes of the parents.

At age 12, danish parents may no longer change the name of the child against its wishes. A 12 year old dane may also be given very light, salaried work, such as a short newspaper round.

Mandatory schooling ends: somewhere around age 15 (9 years total in DK, 10 years in Norway)

At age 15, you may drive a small motorized bicycly (a moped?)

Age of consent: 15 in Denmark, 16 in Norway.

Legally responsible for your own actions: 15 in Denmark, not sure about Norway (probably no more than a year older, or the same age.). This does not mean that you will be tried as an adult if you commit a crime, but it means your crimes go to the police instead of social services.

Voting, and other political privileges: 18 in both countries.

At age 17, you may start taking classes for a drivers license. You may not actually take this test until age 18 (many time this so they take the test on their birthday).

Allowed to drink beer/buy cigarettes: 18 in both countries.
Allowed to drink stronger alcohol: 18 in Denmark, 20 in Norway (yes, that means that a 19-year-old can vote, but not drink. Nobody understands this bit.)

In Norway, an 18-year-old boy can start dreading a letter telling him to report for military sevice. An unmarried woman with no children or demanding career can start dreading the same letter at age 30. The letter for the boys need not arrive until they are well into their twenties. 18-year-old girls will recieve an “invitation to serve”, but for them, it is not mandatory. (service is something like a year, BTW, and its not difficult to get out of if you don’t want to. If you declare yourself a pacifist, they wont make you serve, for instance.)

So, what milestones apply where you live? Feel free to ad more, if you have them.

2

Spain. Specifically, Navarra (some things are different for Navarra than for the rest).

Compulsory school starts September of the year the child turns 5 (so most kids turn 6 during 1st grade) lasts until the kid’s 16. Legal work age is also 16. Before 16 you can only work for your family, under the table or in entertainment. The government considers that, for example, a 14 year old who tutors a neighbor’s kid for a short while and gets some money for it is doing “neighborly work” and the money is not salary - it’s a thank-you gift. Most often if you do “neighborly work” you’re lucky to get a thank you; I refused to go on neighborly babysitting birthday parties when one dumb mother told me… to thank my mother! Who hadn’t been keeping her brat from eating the plants.

At 14 you can get a license to drive a moped.

At 16 you can drive a moped without a license or a real motorcycle with one.

At 18 you can get a car or truck license, including for special transportation (taxicabs, explosives, ambulances, etc)

Age of consent is 13 but this stems from Gypsy customs (legislators figured it would be dumb to make a law that would turn a minority’s century-old customs illegal… what are you going to do, put them all in jail?) and is not the way most non-gypsy parents would really see it.

Able to marry at 14 with parental consent and 18 without.

Able to vote at 18. Can assume any elective office at 18 (we had a senator who got elected the day before his 18th Bday; he could not vote for himself, but he was old enough by the time he had to be sworn in).

Allowed to drink alcohol: relatively new laws; when I was growing up it was parental discretion but there were “kiddie clubs” where you could enter at 13 and only beer would get served. Currently it’s 18 in most of Spain and 16 in Navarra.

Can get emancipated at 14.

Judges have to ask for your opinion on which parent you want to live with, in separations or divorces, when you’re 11 or over.

Can smoke at 18.

Compulsory retirement is generally at 65. “Self-employed” (which due to the way Spanish law works includes most CEOs) don’t have to retire at that age. Evidently the King doesn’t have to either nudge nudge

3

For the U.S. (Western NY specifically)

4-6 start school
12 Get your working papers
16 Mandatory schooling ends, Get your learners permit
17 Age of consent
~18 - Graduate from high school, start college, register for selective service (males)
19 - People around here drive over the border to Canada to buy alcohol legally for the first time
21- buy alcohol legally in the US