That's a good point. Being able to laugh at yourself is so important. My cousin is super sensitive and self-conscious, and cannot take a joke. Not even a good-natured, affectionate one. He is always imagining that people are making fun of him. And he's almost always unhappy.
This is a reminder of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button movie, often seen as good, I found it incredibly boring. I find a thought when one takes the stance that they are 'old souls' or the like, it is taken in a place of empathy in understanding, or particular adult traits that hold strongly visible from our comparative past to our present as well as what others, older, have said about us in the past. This makes me wonder how adult traits are views, for an active adult who does sports may see adult traits in the active child by aligning adulthood virtues to activity. There are a lot of fine lines in adulthood/childhood expressions, but some are more prominent by understanding what most adults end up aligning towards based on how they grow.
In a way. There is a lot of society's values involved, and once separate, you've separated in the individual sense, what makes someone mentally old.
Perhaps partially. I am fortunate in that for most of my life, I have been in a position to help others, meaning I have generally had my own house in order. I have found it instructive, fulfilling, and a way to promote what I care about in the world, as well as a way to help others. For me, the two goals go hand in hand. If I try to do good in a way that doesn't challenge me or help me develop and apply my skills and talents, I can sometimes resent the effort and it's hard to keep at it. I'm excepting here brief one-off events like when I spent a weekend with a church group helping a community in a neighboring state clean up after flood damage.
I disagree. It isn't universal, of course, but I have known plenty of children who exhibit more adult traits that supposed adults, and plenty of adults who act like juveniles. On the one hand I agree that even the most mature teenagers shouldn't be expected to shoulder adult responsibilities on their own yet. That being said, it wasn't that long ago that 16-19 year olds were often married, and running their own household. Children are capable of much more than we give them credit for, and much more than we often trust and allow them to do. We try to keep them childlke for far too long, then on the magic day they turn 18 or 21 or some age, they suddenly become adults. It doesn't work that way. They have to start slow, and learn as they go.
