# When do you stop being a kid?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 27, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820 "2016-05-27T15:47:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/21 "2016-05-27T21:58:24Z")
Without other context, 18.
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### Author:  [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/22 "2016-05-27T22:41:11Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#):
>
> Other: it depends on who is calling you “kid”.
…and it depends on the maturity of the kid / not-a-kid in question.
I’ve known 20-year-olds who were adults, and 30-year-olds who were still kids.
Although in my circle, after a certain point (and definitely once they are in their 30s) the term is less likely to be “kid” and more likely to be “big fat man baby.” 😃
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/23 "2016-05-27T22:52:49Z")
“Other”
I got it from Heinlein. It’s the moment when you realize life isn’t necessarily fair.
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### Author:  [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/24 "2016-05-27T23:04:48Z")
You stop being a kid when you are responsible for your own food, your own transportation needs, your own rent or mortgage . . .
It’s a state of mind, more than an age.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/25 "2016-05-27T23:35:23Z")
When people start saying: “Here’s looking at you, you old bat.”
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/26 "2016-05-28T01:46:24Z")
I haven’t.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/27 "2016-05-28T01:54:31Z")
In many ways I’m still a kid, but I stopped being a kid in a lot of ways when I had kids.
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/28 "2016-05-28T01:54:38Z")
> [@saje](#):
>
> I’m 54 going on 12. I’m still a kid.
Growing old happens; growing up is optional. 😉
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/29 "2016-05-28T03:11:45Z")
This may be a sixty year old body, but it’s still me in here!
Back when I was 24, I decided I was too “grown up” to go into a toy store. A few years passed, and I realized how stupid that was, and went right back to buying toys for myself.
Perhaps we’re really “grown up” when we get over being “grown up.”
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/30 "2016-05-28T05:28:06Z")
If someone is using “Kid” as a dismissive term, I got pissed at 18.
Among peers, we were “kids” until graduating college.
But, for “Fully Grown Up”, **QtM** nailed it. On the great March to the Cliff, once your parents are gone, it means “You’re Next!”.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/31 "2016-05-28T06:06:36Z")
> [@saje](#):
>
> I’m 54 going on 12. I’m still a kid.
Or, as I was about to put it: At what age do you become a kid once again?
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### Author:  [@Commodore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commodore)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/32 "2016-05-28T07:07:41Z")
Kid ? Child = about 13 yo
A boy in my day was under 30 yo, all the old blokes would always call you boy, not in a nasty way, but it was all to do with respect.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/33 "2016-05-28T14:48:40Z")
When you start paying your own way. The only difference I’ve ever seen between kids and grownups is that grownups pay.
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### Author:  [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/34 "2016-05-28T18:43:06Z")
I recall being about 24 and getting somewhat annoyed at some guy on the Internet for saying everyone under 30 is a child. I was paying a mortgage, I owned a business with a dozen employees, and I was the only family member taking care of my terminally ill father. I definitely felt like an adult then.
I’m 32 now and not a lot has changed. My dad is dead and I have a wife and son. Marriage and parenthood are definitely new life experiences, but in terms of adult responsibility they’re actually a lot like taking care of my dad except extremely positive experiences compared to very negative.
One big difference is that now I couldn’t care less if someone thinks I’m done being a kid or not. Personally I still agree with 24 year old **Fuzzy Dunlop** , but he was mildly to moderately annoyed by some guy on the Internet and I wouldn’t even care if someone I knew well felt that way.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/35 "2016-05-31T02:13:44Z")
I voted “Other” because when my mother passed away, I said to my oldest brother “I guess we’re the grownups now”. I was 45 and had two kids of my own (he was 51 and had 4).
That said: I have to say if you’ve graduated college you’re no longer a kid in any meaningful sense. Other signs:
- You’re self-supporting
- You have kids of your own whom you are supporting.
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### Author:  [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2016, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/36 "2016-05-31T05:58:33Z")
I’ve got a mortgage, two car payments, a house windows payment, divorced and married again along with four children, two out of the house and I’m about to be a grandpa, that means I’m not a kid any more?
DAMMIT! I gotta quit playin hookie during the staff meetings and start reading those memos!
I voted other, as has been said, not a kid when you start being self supporting and supporting kids/others yourself. Will almost always be a “kid” compared to someone.
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### Author:  [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2016, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/37 "2016-05-31T08:59:36Z")
According to my mom, not til I die.
Story from my thirties: (on a speakerphone in a office of women)
“Well, do you have a coat? It’s freezing out there!”
" I listened to "Does your mommy think you’re cold? Poooohhh Bwasssyyy!’ for months…
From my forties:
“put this on, my god, do you even have a good coat?!”
I was wearing a wool sweater in Texas. And a pea coat.
Don’t even add the “do you need to eat that?/ Why aren’t you eating?” thing.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2016, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/38 "2016-05-31T12:30:01Z")
In my experience, it’s a relative thing. As you get older, the line gets love higher. At 31, I’m starting to think of any teen as a kid, when I used to separate the two categories.
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/39 "2016-05-31T16:06:56Z")
When you start dealing with your problems as an adult. Talking instead of running away, for example.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2016, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-stop-being-a-kid/755820/40 "2016-05-31T16:13:51Z")
For me, it was age 37. That year, it suddenly hit me that I was an adult. And I’d been out of my parents’ house since I was 19. I don’t recall a specific event as a trigger - it was just a slap of reality.
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