Metaphysical Adulthood and other uncommon time limits

This thread has taken a depressing, but not untrue, turn.
I can't help but feel that I should have expected this.

>Childhood is full of rosiness

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

well, it's not entirely true, it is possible to be both an adult and still be genuinely happy.

Well, relatively, when compared to adulthood, is user really wrong?

>is user really wrong?
kinda, My childhood really wasn't any more rosy than my adulthood, the only difference I can account for is how I respond to when shit hits the fan, as a child my reaction was to freak out and shut down, nowadays My reaction is "how do I fix this" and then freak out once everything's been fixed.

Vaguely defined coming-of-age stuff.

>Understanding (if not condoning/forgiving) a shitty parent.
>Generally learning to love flawed people.
>Putting someone else's needs first.
>If the kid's an heir or something, putting the kingdom first.
>Learning be happier by wanting less rather than by having more.
>Understanding their own capacity for violence and coercion, and the responsibilities those things entail.
>Accepting personal limits. The impossibility of knowing really pertinent stuff (about other peoples' internal lives, the future, etc.) The inevitability that they will fail, sometimes when the stakes are high.

Fair point, depending on the accuracy of your memory of your childhood.

Compared to childhood I am very happy.

Every layer of that awful stage of life that got shed was a weight removed.

No school, a job, own home, independence, friends. Childhood sucked balls.

>it is possible to be both an adult and still be genuinely happy.
[citation needed]

Heh
Seriously though, you're right and I wanted to post that Judge Dredd comic with the genuinely happy citizen, but I can't find it.

The attitude those people have us that if teenagers. You think it's what adults are like because most people don't mature beyond that.

Being an adult is realizing you have responsibilities beyond yourself

>Rite of Passage has been a thing for thousands of years in every culture up until the modern day.
Rite of Passage seems like it might be the way to go here.
But what sort of rite would trigger a magical effect?

It is actually for a noble child in a frontier colony.
Can we devise a Fantasyland rite of passage that utilizes some of these concepts?
Or are their others that could work?

I'd like it to be something ceremonial enough that it can't just be rushed into, or the time limit aspect of the scenario just feels like arbitrary fiat.

Building the personal growth themes into a rite of passage, while doable, won't really trigger said personal growth most of the time. That said, this could be played as a plot point. The kid completed his fast but still doesn't understand the purpose of self-denial, so the magic stuff won't trigger yet.

It'd also be good to know what magical bullshit we're trying to trigger. Ideally the personal growth and magical effect would be thematically tied together.

Lots of rites involve partaking in an adult activity ritualistically, like hunting or surviving alone in the wild. The Rite could be some kind of vision quest type deal like climbing to the top of a magic mountain and recieving a blessing from the gods

>It'd also be good to know what magical bullshit we're trying to trigger.
Well, it's a powerful spell that's set to trigger when the orphaned child becomes the new adult noble.
The true nature of the spell, and whether the PCs want to prevent or ensure it, is up to the Players to discover.
The point is that the trigger was to be, "Now there is an adult of this bloodline."
Originally, I had their 18th birthday as the trigger, but then I thought that might be anachronistic, arbitrary, and dumb.

You seem to be the odd one out here.

>No responsibilities
>Room to specialize instead of having to be a generalist just to survive
>Free time by the truckload
>Can see your friends every day
>Don't have to deal with the constant maintenance
>Expectations are few, at most your parents want chores and your school wants grades
>No need to explore your identity and confront the forces that shaped you into the bitter, twitching, pained /thing/ you have become
>Innocence
>People are a lot more willing to forgive what you do

What's not to like? There's no such thing as freedom, anyway. We're all still slaves to the needs of mortality. Food, water, sleep, shelter, air - only if we no longer needed those could we truly be free.

Is it a primitive society or a civilized one? Primitive coming of age ceremonies are varied and usually involve gathering the tribe (or the tribe's men) to perform some ritual activity. Usually religion is central. So for example the child leaves his mother, goes off with the tribe's men, performs a ritualistic dance or such, is anointed by the high priest and probably is given their adult name. The leaving behind of the society of childhood (mother and family connections) to join the society of men (father and tribal connections) are important aspects, as well as leaving the familiar locale for a mystic one and returning when the ritual is completed as a diferent person. Civilized are pretty similar with different themes and rituals. Usualy visiting a church is central, (transition from mundane to mystical) gathering of the family rather than tribe, organized religion, (think bar mitzvah or a catholic's first confession) the ritual usually consists of special clothing and recitation of a set speech. The child is becoming an adult by entering society. The church represents the rest of society, the priest is the hierarchy, fellow churchgoers are now your equals, and now you have a responsibility to interact with this society.
marriage is also a rite of passage to adulthood by necessity. Can't be married if you aren't an adult, or if you are a woman, you just get to be an adult when you get kicked out of your home to go live with your new husband. If the child has a bethroval this would usually become active upon their coming of age ceremony. If a political marriage hangs in the balance you wanna seal the deal fast, probably as soon as the boy has completed his coming of age.

If the trigger happens upon them "becoming an adult" then it's when their culture's coming of age ceremony is complete. If it is "upon inheritance" then it is when their father, or whoever the previous owner of the title is, dies. Sounds like it's something of a blend like "when he become eligible to inherit" I would go with upon completion of the coming of age ceremony woth the posibility of it triggering earlier with the current title holder's death. That would be a good way to introduce tension, does someone want this to happen bad enough to assassinate someone for it? Do the PCs? Or will they step in to defend?

>orphaned
Maybe I should read the post before responding. Replace title holder with regent where appropriate.

It's a civilized society amongst "primitive" foreign ones.
So, it would seem I need to develop a bar mitzvah for my religion and tie it to something temporal, like a season change or something.

>Depends on the Setting:
>Fuck you... The setting is my personal setting

Bam! Nailed it all on your own OP. Now if only other people would do the same.

Thanks.
I find that the trick is to not only lurk moar, but apply things observed in such lurkings to one's own posts.

Adulthood is when you stop wanting to be an adult.

Child me was stuck, very, very, very aware of my GID, and completely unaware of any way to fix it. also fucking surreal bullying that only stopped when i sort of threatened to blow one of them up

so yeah, childhood was shite for me

Or just xth birthday in a civilized society people generally know when their birthday's were and have access to a calender.
Peasants of course just have all their kids do the ceremony on the spring of their xth year, but nobility will know what date they were born on.

>No responsibilities
Other than all the shit you had to do and do well or become a disappointment to everyone you loved and a failure as a person.

>Room to specialize instead of having to be a generalist just to survive
I've found it's the opposite. As a child it was "what do you want to be when you grow up?" and not one of those obnoxious clipboard jockies would accept "What've you got?" as an answer but holy fuck did they bitch if you didn't think of something. Better learn to specialize and learn to do at least one thing well. Now I'm an adult I can do more or less whatever the fuck I want.

>Free time by the truckload
Your joking right? I woke up tired because dreams haunted by anxieties about tomorrow and the shitness of yesterday. Go to school and endure hours spent among dickheads learning shit I wasn't interested in and accumulating homework to eat up my evening and weekends. Get bullied. Go home and spend all evening doing homework. Repeat for every weekday. Weekends are eaten up with accumulated homework or "would you just...?", "This will just take a minute...", "whilst your over there...", "If you wouldn't mind..." etcetera

>Can see your friends every day
No I couldn't. I had one friend in primary school who had 30% attendance and was dead not long after he went to secondary school. I was the only one from my primary school that went to that particular secondary school. Due to having dyslexia in those good old days I was placed on the tard table and so had little chance to learn social skills. How well do you think I acclimatized to the change?

>Don't have to deal with the constant maintenance
Maintaining of shit that is mine and I choose to have and maintain, so I am happy to do so.

>Expectations are few, at most your parents want chores and your school wants grades
Expectations are fairly few now. The big difference being that they aren't shit for the sake of shit. They are things I enjoy, I have chosen and I feel are worth it.

>No need to explore your identity and confront the forces that shaped you into the bitter, twitching, pained /thing/ you have become
That's a good one. That's actually how I would have described my basic state of mind ages 4 - 16. As an adult I know exactly who and what I am amd am very much at peace with all that.

>Innocence
A non-thing.

>People are a lot more willing to forgive what you do
Now I'm sure your joking.

That probably sound more ranty and bitter than I intended. Have a requiem pic.

Just have magical puberty. Around age 12 plus minus a few years, magical powers kick in.

It's awkward and embarrassing because you accidentally cast "create water" in your bed at night, or you accidentally cast "light" in your hand in the classroom, and you're trying to hide it under your desk but then the teacher calls you up to the chalkboard.

I'm not that user, but...

>>Innocence
>A non-thing.
Virtue untested is innocence.

>>People are a lot more willing to forgive what you do
>Now I'm sure your joking.
Go pee your pants, grab a stranger, and cry in a mall today and see how forgiving the world is of you once they find out that, presumably, you aren't retarded.
Seriously, go try it out. We'll wait.
Hell, try just blatantly walking out of a store holding an armful of candy.
Or, come to think of it, stealing a car.

the person who did this comic never matured, and is wrong, most people should feel very different when they mature, thing is you have to make it happen.

Why would I want to do any of that? I never wanted to do or did any of that when I was a child.

>Virtue untested is innocence.
That's just your opinion.

Also, OP, what is the country in question's inheritance laws, cause that seems relevant.
I assume it is the typical medieval european eldest inherits, but what are the details? Does the eldest inherit everything? Is anything split amongst siblings? Can family members expect anything? Is this expectation based in law or just greed? How does marriage fit into the inheritance? Does the widow get anything or does she just become the responsibility of her eldest son? Other way around? Is political marriage a thing? Is arranged marriage? Is divorce? How is the regent chosen? Who is it? An advisor, a noble, a relative of the king/heir? How much power do they have? How does the regent tranfer power to the new sovereign? When? How fancy is the coronation? What happens at the coronation? What rituals or ceremonies are involved? How often does the regent attempt to co-opt power? How common are assassinations? How accepted is such power grabbing by the nobles? By the people? Do the nobles or the people have any participation in the government or is it an absolute monarchy? Any history of republicanism? What role does the church play in the government, tranfer of power, granting of legitimacy, and how much power do they have? Is divine right a thing? Would the church ever refuse to crown a sovereign? What would happen? What if the people don't support the sovereign? What if the nobles did not? If there is a standing army do they participate in the government, determining the heir, or in anything else political? What are the laws of this kingdom and how are they decided? By whom? What role does magic play in any of this? Can you co-opt all this by slaying a dragon and marying a princess? How about mind control? How does foreign political powers influence all this?

Adulthood is when you realize and manifest your agency in the world, however tenuous it may be. Whether or not one uses it is a separate matter entirely.

Children, at least a great number of them, are taught that as adults they'll have to be the primary actors for themselves and others. As a result a lot of people internalize that this shift in responsibility will come *some day* but they're not entirely sure when that is. The day they become an adult is the day they realize that the time for agency is already here. Perhaps it's been here for awhile. From then on they'll be making a conscious decision to either captain their ship or surrender the duty to others. Even kept women in patriarchal societies have certain sacred duties and actions they're pushed to manage on their own.

Therefore, I'd say that a good coming-of-age event is when someone tackles an issue they'd always let someone else take care of before.

>The cobbler's son knows his father is too sick to leave his bed, and they need the sheriff's bastard to pay them if they're going to eat tonight. He takes his father's trusty club and don's his cloak before heading into town to collect what is owed.

Can't speak for that user, but I had two batshit insane parents, one that beat me all the time and the other that constantly played mind games to make me feel inferior. I was getting physically and sexually abused at school (including multiple rapes and one gang rape in the boy's room in middle school) because of a nasty rumor that I was gay, and the teacher's response was "Stop acting like a little faggot then", then refused to elaborate what it was that I was doing (seriously, if anyone ever explained it then I'd at least have made an effort to stop). We were always dirt poor, I was constantly hearing wailing about how poor we were but we sure as shit had lots of dope for my parents to smoke, and when I tried to help I'd get screamed at again,"YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO WORRY ABOUT MONEY", Well, when you respond to my school asking for $5 for a field trip by running through the house breaking things and screaming about how no one cares that you're poor a kid is going to fucking worry.

Being an adult is so much easier. Work is easier than school in every way (I get paid, if I get assaulted at work I can talk to HR and they will take it seriously), if someone attacks me outside work I can retaliate and not get punished for it (schools don't punish bullying, they punish fighting back because the teachers don't want to hear your squawking), if money's tight I can sacrifice luxury items because I chose not to have a drug addiction.

Being a kid is a living hell.

>Why would I want to do any of that?
To find out that society is far more forgiving of the behavior of children than adults, obviously.

>I never wanted to do or did any of that when I was a child.
The fact that you think this is relevant enough to warrant mentioning leads me doubt your reasoning skills and rethink the presumption I stated earlier.

Okay, let's reverse this:
>Innocence is a non-thing
"That's just your opinion."
See how that's just a lame and pointless statement?
Probably not.
Listen, obviously its your opinion.
That's why you said it.
My stating that it is your opinion is pointless and does a poor job of disagreeing.
If you disagree with something, like if I said "Your brain is a non-thing.", then one way to properly disagree is to offer an alternative, like by defining your brain as a thing-thing instead of a non-thing.
The we can validate that definition instead of just marveling over people having opinions.

Adulthood is seeing that there is no "adulthood", only experience and that this is not a race, you try to do your best with what you are given and hope for better things in the future.

On agency, I agree that it's mostly related to maturity, but there are plenty kids out there with more agency than your average "adult", and lots of people who may never develop a "proper agency" as they may have already decided to be "dependents" to some person or institution.

>muh adulthood
Adulthood is when a person starts to take responsibility for his actions and choices.
It isn't tied to age, virginity status or other bullshit like that.

Just go with the standard coming of age story requirement of taking personal responsibility. Or self-reliance.

Then please enlighten me as to what innocence is, what use it has and why it is important because so far it seems to be some weird intangible and indescribable thing that you have and then have not at some arbitrary point.

And if it is the lack of testing of virtues then tell me which virtues they would be and why those virtues had the value of innocence and how the lapse in those virtues caused that value to be lost. Because damned if I know the loss of patience and telling some one to STFU about their sonic re-colours means a damn thing beyond "I'm sick of hearing about your furry shit'.

The argument, if that's what it is, started by someone presumably not you trying to tell me that I really did miss my childhood and am sad about it being over. Because his experiences and the values placed upon them to him seem not to be unique to him.

I disagreed, you offered a counter argument with the assumption that I did or wanted to do certain things as a child. I did not and so could miss it.

Maybe if you'd tried not being a little faggot and actually took a good at yourself instead of waiting for someone else to spoonfeed you what you were doing wrong then they wouldn't've had to rape some decency into you.

The whole point is that the age of legal adulthood is a catch-all heuristic with arguable applicability whereas the age where one actually reaches maturity varies with the individual, milieu, and mode.

>there are plenty kids out there with more agency than your average "adult", and lots of people who may never develop a "proper agency"

I'd say those are cases of people who reach adulthood early, and other cases of people who never reach it at all.

There's no objective definition of adulthood
So yeah DEPENDS ON THE SETTING

I would say that adulthood is when you've tested your limits and pushed yourself farther than others.

I've met 30-40 year olds that are basically babies.
A little bit of rain, a little bit of cold, a little bit of hard work or something that doesn't go quite right and they're ready to cry, get angry, or quit.
Basically children in the bodies of flabby men.

Recently I saw a well-off man in his mid-40's break down in a fit because it was cold, rainy, and he'd just stepped in some mud.
I asked him about his day and we had a small talk that he made about his life.
He exaggerated his own hardships many times over and, as far as I could tell, had lived nothing but a privileged and soft life without a single rough patch.

I'm only 20 but I consider myself more of a man than he will ever be, because even as a normal guy I know I'm more physically and mentally tough than he will ever be.

Can this be a new copypasta

:-^)

>eldest inherit everything
>split amongst siblings & family members is subjective custom and convention, not law
>Widow retains control of estate until eldest child takes control, which varies by family but can be assumed upon adulthood
>Political marriage is rare due to political climate, but not unheard of
>Arranged marriage is common
>Divorce is rare
>Regent is appointed by ruling noble upon ascension and is typically a noble advisor with authority and responsibilities
>While ruler rules, regent is just a noble, but upon ruler's death, they are effectively the ruler.
>The regent tranfers power to the new sovereign upon completion of a rite of passage ceremony, apparently
>The coronation would be mildly fancy and about a public display of strength and solidarity

>What rituals or ceremonies are involved?
A brass monkey? I got nothing.

Continued

>The regent attempts to co-opt power at only at great risk due to the popularity of the ruling family
>Assassinations are unheard of in "civilized lands"
>Power grabbing and maneuvering amonst the nobles, tradesmen, or milita is common and accepted, but never extends to the ruling family
>Nobles are the middle management of the government, obedient to the ruler
>A kind of history of republicanism
>Religions wield power through influencing nobles of their faith
>Certain faiths that earn large followings grant blessings upon coronations, the first to do so being the most respected and honored faith.
>Rule is considered a sacred right, but not necessarily a "divine right"
>A faith might choose not to bless a ruler's coronation, but at this is rarely done by dominant faiths (with the exception of the nature religion)
>If they did not bless the coronation, it would bring less honor to the faith, unless other faiths also chose to withold blessings, in which case the coronation would likely be delayed
>If the people don't support the ruler, they would express their issues with their noble, who must then resolve them One way or another
>If nobles don't support the ruler, they may not obey or enforce his commands, if enough nobles disobey, the ruler may not have the forces to replace the nobles
>The militia plays a small role in the government
>The ancient immutable laws are based on writings from the previous kingdom in a land long ago, new laws are decreed by the ruler
>Magic is a part of all things
>You cannot co-opt all this by slaying a dragon and marying a princess, but it would be dank impressive
>Mind control, if undetected, could be very effective
>Foreign political powers are a mess, but would like to influence all this as much possible.

See:
*SHOULD*

I'm tempted to ask where you grew up but I have a bad feeling I don't want to know the answer. Just. Ouch.

>Then please enlighten me as to what innocence is
I did

>what use it has
>if something does not have a use, it is a non-thing

>why it is important
>if something is not important, it is a non-thing

>And if it is the lack of testing of virtues then tell me which virtues they would be and why those virtues had the value of innocence and how the lapse in those virtues caused that value to be lost.
Virtue does not necessarily mean "one of a set of virtues."
For example: "A partitular moral excellence" does not have the same meaning as "a commendable trait".
Savvy?

>I disagreed, you offered a counter argument with the assumption that I did or wanted to do certain things as a child. I did not and so could miss it.
No.
Read it again. As many times as needed.
I was saying that if a child did that, they would be forgiven because they're a child, whereas an adult would not.
"Wanting to do it" did not enter into it.

Yeah, I definitely should not have presumed that you are not retarded.

I didn't say anything about happiness, just hope. does happiness require hope? only if you think it through, and why would you?

It's when they do their own taxes for the first time.

>No responsibilities
Hah hah hah hah hah

>Room to specialize instead of having to be a generalist just to survive
What the fuck are you talking about? I really, actually don't understand.

>Free time by the truckload
Time I have to spend around my parents isn't free.

>Can see your friends every day
Assuming you have friends, and your parents don't forbid it just to show you who's boss.

>Don't have to deal with the constant maintenance
Eat out and don't clean, then. Nobody can force you.

>Expectations are few, at most your parents want chores and your school wants grades
Did you have a couple of pet rocks for parents? Expectations are way lower now, and I never gave a fuck what anyone else wanted anyway.

>No need to explore your identity and confront the forces that shaped you into the bitter, twitching, pained /thing/ you have become
...But I love doing that. Trying to figure out who I was and how thinking works is probably what I did the most as a child, seeing as I had no money, no toys and no friends.

>Innocence
Innocence is a meme, you dumb asshole.

>People are a lot more willing to forgive what you do
Absolutely not true.

Why not a number or multiple of a number of which holds magical significance OP? Like, if there are 7 schools of magic, reaching metaphysical adulthood could happen on any year which is a multiple of 7 in which the person has reached a spiritual awareness in some fashion in the previous 7. It wouldn't be specific to the day of their birth so much as the point where they begin forming themselves into a person, so for the most part it seems arbitrary unless you know the events in question by some means; usually an individual would be the only one to determine what events and scenarios played out to function as their turning points and the 7-year crux that intersected after. One would need to have done a great deal of intel-gathering and research of several varieties to be able to predict when a youth was likely to reach metaphysical adulthood, leading the common perspective on the matter to be that it's completely arbitrary and up to random chance rather than part of them cultivating their own personality and self-awareness.

A particularly precocious child, or one Awakened prior to their first 7 year point could potentially reach metaphysical adulthood at the first crux. Some talented folks manage it by 14, while the average will manage it at 21 years after starting out. 35 would be a late bloomer and 42, 49, 56 and so forth are probably the sort of folks where you'd wonder what they're doing with their lives and odds are they don't know either.

At each subsequent increment of 7, if they've had some kind of personal revelation or major change in persona, they might go through a secondary supernatural change reflected spiritually in things that would give one insight to such matters, or in manifestation of different means of magical influence than they'd previously dealt.

>the President and his supporters are all adolescents

You must've been really cute

>Innocence is a meme, you dumb asshole.
>>People are a lot more willing to forgive what you do
>Absolutely not true.
See
And just in case:
Although, everything is a meme, so you're not really wrong there, just kinda pointless.

>3. I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut if you are triggered by "Tumblr Noses"
I don't give a fuck if you don't give a fuck, little boy. They're still retarded.

Why focus on the transition to adulthood?
Why not simply say that it takes 16 years or so for sufficient magical energy to accumulate in the child's body to trigger the event?
No worries about PCs sexing up children. No worries about the kid failing the rite of passage or being forced into it early. Only thing you have to worry about is a crazy bastard with time manipulation magics, and even then you could say that whatever happened affected the body, but not the magic gathering in it.

>mfw I designed the entire universe around the number 8.
16 to 24 sounds right for rites of passage for adulthood.
I like it.

>Why not simply say that it takes 16 years or so for sufficient magical energy to accumulate in the child's body to trigger the event?
There needs to be an adequate reason and explanation.
Even if it's magic, I gotta explain shit.
16 as some arbitrary number seems too meaningless.

Then again...

>A rational and methodical reworking
The fact that you have autism really helps explain why this is such a difficult concept for you.

>They're still retarded.
I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut.
I don't give a flying fuck at the moon.

I don't actually have autism, but I was raised under the impression that autism was normal and situationally desirable.
My approach to world building is admittedly virtually indistinguishable from autism, though.

>this is such a difficult concept for you.
Which concept what now?

So as a societal marker, being an adult was more plausible 50 years ago when an honest factory job could support your family in a suburb whereas today there are some people working two jobs just so they and their roommate don't starve?

man are you fucking crazy childhood sucked.
Things have only gotten better for me since I stopped being beholden to crazy druggies.

yeah, nowadays that kind of adult just isn't as possible as it was.
In a city, even with moderately well paying college jobs, you need a roommate and a small apartment to even squeak by.

Children do not think through the consequences of their actions, and therefore wile their days away. They are carefree and time seems to pass by more slowly, each moment lasting longer, because they do not have monotonous responsibilities that take up a portion of their days and seem to make time move faster. They don't really understand or conceive of everything so the world is more full of wonder.

They don't get along with adults very well because they don't think their actions all the way through, do not have a concept of a life full of responsibilities yet, and have not yet dulled their wanton imaginings through learning and age. They are more impulsive and prone to daydreaming, and don't really grasp the full weight of life's hardships just yet.

>Loss of Virginity vs Rite of Passage
They're the same. Losing virginity is a rite of passage.

You've got two options:

1) Adulthood is something that happens to you. You become an adult when you grow your wings or turn 18 or whatever.

2) Adulthood is something you do. You become an adult by doing something. Foreskin removal, shoving penis into vagina, reading The Important Book, killing a bear.

Essentially, do you want adulthood to be defined passively or actively?

This video is relevant to the subject at hand.

youtube.com/watch?v=Q5dYTLxnq_U

And if you want to get to the good part instantly, skip to the 5 minute mark.

>This video is relevant to the subject at hand.
True.

Bit of a pile of meandering dreck, but I chuckled a couple times.

Also, the idea that if you're an adult you have freedom, choice, and control of your life is just idiotic.
More so than if you're a kid, but that's not saying much.

I still think kids have it better, but can't appreciate it until it's too late.
Unless you had a horribly abusive childhood.
And I say that when my school life was pretty bad.

I don't know if it's abusive, but I basically had to raise my parents when I was a kid because they were fucking children.
I had to teach them basic concepts of morality like "you aren't actually always right" and germ theory and to not eat things off of the ground.

Being free of that is amazing.

>germ theory and to not eat things off of the ground.
>Being free of that is amazing.
My father is retired.
I go through some level of this every time he visits for Christmas.
A couple years back I made him awesome scrambled eggs.
The last forkfull fell on the floor.
He scooped it up with his fork.
I begged him not to eat it.
I yelled that I would happily cook him another plate of eggs.
He hesitated.
I explained that our floors aren't clean.
Our cats hadn't been properly wiping their paws when leaving the litterbox.
He shrugged and ate the eggs.
Last year I learned he doesn't wash his hand after using the bathroom unless he thinks he might have gotten feces on them.
He doesn't know how to properly wet them or use soap when washing.
Btw, he reads quantum mechanics books for fun.

Yay. Adult freedom. Whee.

>16 as some arbitrary number seems too meaningless.
Not if it's how many years have to pass for something to happen. A cake bakes in a set amount of time, and will not be finished early simply because society declares it to be so.

Trip dubs has a good point.

>He shrugged and ate the eggs.
that's adulthood. risking your life because it's mostly done anyways.

>that's adulthood. risking your life because it's mostly done anyway

The only things that changed for me was that I went from a school that taught be that god was angry that I masterbated to a place that taught me, amungst other things, that being white is bad now.

Such is life and the transition from a catholic high school and a pants on head retarded liberal college campus

>tfw still a kid by this
D-does anybody want to play trucks?

If you use the bathroom, there is always always always feces on your hands. Your father just doesn't wash unless he can see globs of feces from the sounds of it.

>If you use the bathroom, there is always always always feces on your hands.
Indeed.

>Your father just doesn't wash unless he can see globs of feces from the sounds of it.
Or smears.

This man prepared my meals for about a quarter of my childhood.

>a child raped at age 5 is now an adult

But they can't rent a car for another 20 years!

You completely misunderstood what that user was saying.

He was saying that being free of the prior situation where he as a child was responsible for adults who didn't understand germ theory was amazing.

Oh no, I got It.
I wasn't disagreeing, but I can see the confusion.
I was just relaying how my story is parallel but different.

What I'm getting from this thread is that everyone's life varies: some had better a childhood, some had a better adulthood, some just had constant misery, and some had noodle salad.