What is the cutoff year for what you consider "your childhood?"

[Mekanos]

I'm always curious on this one. Is high school "childhood?" Or even maybe early college years? Is childhood defined by a sense of nostalgia or what?

I think I generally consider my cutoff high school. By high school I was fully plugged into the internet and learning about the big bad world besides just my community and the books I read in school. And I think that opened my worldview up a lot. But maybe it's even earlier? Do some people see middle school as "young adult?"

Is there a meaningful difference between childhood and young adulthood?

 

[Magic-Man]

Childhood goes away when you graduate, IMO. You never realize how much you've grown up until that point, and from there on out it's all business.

 

[Not Spaceghost]

like 16?

 

[erekiddo]

Once I got a job.

 

[Bonefish]

I'd say about 16 is where its hard to describe that time as "childhood"

 

[Ziltoidia 9]

My dad suddenly died when I was 13, so I guess then.

 

[BDS]

Childhood is supposed to end?

 

[Sanjuro]

This answer is going to be different for everyone. There isn't a hard end because there are just too many intangibles.

 

[scottbeowulf]

Once you do your own taxes. There are plenty of people I've known who's parents still claimed them because of how dependent they were. And even tho they were all technically adults, they really were children.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

1992.

 

[Deleted member 69573]

When i gained certain levels of self awareness / shame. There's probably 2 moments I can point at, one at a very early age and the other at 11 years old or so.

Literal "put down the toys" moments.

 

[Mekanos]

1992.

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1992.

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I think it's 1992, but I'm not sure.

EDIT: Sneaky mod deleting their own post smh

 

[Poppy]

not sure but i'll just say 9/11 out of convenience

 

[Deleted member 19813]

1999

 

[erekiddo]

If you want a more depressing answer from me, I'd say when you learn the concept of money and bills.

I had to worry where rent money was going to come from at the ripe age of 8. Thanks, parents.

 

[Fei]

Moving out of my parents' house and taking care of myself. It's a sea change living on your own.

 

[The Climaxan]

Probably halfway through my freshman year of high school when a friend snuck a bottle of schnapps to a sleepover and my life changed forever.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

Entering high school. I grew up in a tiny ass town where I went to school with the same 20 kids from kindergarten through senior year. But, highschool was still a shift where I feel like I started choosing new friends who shared my interests instead of simply being best friends with the person who lived next to me.

 

[greenbird]

Could be a couple different answers for me, because I grew up kinda fast due to my household situation. So on one hand I can say by the time I was 12, I was already dealing with real shit. No later than 15 when I left my parents home, that was kind of a definitive cut off point.

 

[III-V]

I remember my mind changing and I suddenly saw the world differently around 19 or so.

 

[Mekanos]

Entering high school. I grew up in a tiny ass town where I went to school with the same 20 kids from kindergarten through senior year. But, highschool was still a shift where I feel like I started choosing new friends who shared my interests instead of simply being best friends with the person who lived next to me.

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Yeah, I went to a K-8 school, so I knew many of those kids for a very long time. Some of them went to my high school but the high school was like 3x larger than my elementary/middle school and most of it was new people.

I consider 12/13 the cut off

After that you get exposed to the mean kids in school who will probably make you smoke a cigarette or steal a book from the library

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There's some truth to this as well, I remember middle school being when I felt like I was first exposed to real bullying.

 

[Couleurs]

I consider 12/13 the cut off

After that you get exposed to the mean kids in school who will probably make you smoke a cigarette or steal a book from the library

 

[Bor Gullet]

17 for me.

 

[Instant Vintage]

June 17th, 1999 is the day my childhood ended, as I graduated from high school that Thursday night.

From that moment forward, I was an adult, whether I wanted to be or not.

 

[jp319]

I'm 44, not sure yet

 

[nanskee]

I feel like around 20

 

[Mekanos]

I remember my mind changing and I suddenly saw the world differently around 19 or so.

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For me I'd say about every 5 years I reach a new "breakthrough point," starting from 14/15, then 19/20, etc. I'm almost 30 and my worldview has changed fairly drastically even in the last 5ish years.

 

[Future Gazer]

I'd say the cutoff is when puberty hits.

 

[Kitsunebaby]

Whatever year I stopped downloading random AMVs off of KaZaA.

 

[III-V]

For me I'd say about every 5 years I reach a new "breakthrough point," starting from 14/15, then 19/20, etc. I'm almost 30 and my worldview has changed fairly drastically even in the last 5ish years.

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I would agree with this for certain. I just have a distinct memory of some loss of - I wish I had a better word - innocence around then. I had moved out of my home, away from my family, had no money and shit was rough. The only one that came close to that was having a child.

 

[Plumpman]

Never.

 

[Dan-o]

Feb 2020

 

[Dyle]

Childhood ended at age 10 when I learned I was too big for the McDonald's play place, which was a huge disappointment since being a very small person was the closest thing I had ever had to a physical talent up to that point

 

[Crayolan]

When I was like 12 I think I hit puberty and my personality changed pretty suddenly, so to me that's always been when I'd stop calling myself a kid.

 

[Sai]

Honestly I was pretty sheltered as a kid, so it wasn't til my late teens that I really stopped considering myself a kid.

 

[Deleted member 4367]

I made my own way since i was 17 but was a child all through college.

 

[Rendering...]

There was no clean breakoff point. It's one long transition into a more practical and informed mindset.

I didn't feel like I was fully mature at 30. Guess I'll keep learning forever. Which is fine.

 

[Anth0ny]

first year of uni for me

high school was the time of halo 3, cod4 and brawl. the good times.

no such good times in university

 

[Replicant]

I guess after you graduate high school, but I always consider 18-20 part of my childhood only because I was so young and honestly those 2 or 3 years after high school were the best times of my life.

 

[Lifendz]

18. Entered basic training. Nothing was the same thereafter.

 

[The Chosen One]

I think it happens when you start showing some independence and start taking on some responsibilities. This happens at a different age for different people.

For me, I'd say my childhood ended around 13/14 when I started working and saving up for a car. I bought my first car at 15 and I drove cross-country from South Carolina to California by myself when I was 16. Whereas my son is 17 and still doesn't drive and has no urgency to work. I still consider him in his "childhood" even though he's headed off to college this fall (assuming COVID will allow it).

Some people simply grow up faster than others. It's why you'll see some adults lament that they didn't have much of a childhood and with other adults we wonder if they'll ever grow-up.

 

[Fulminator]

Dunno. I'm 25 and still feel like I haven't reached the end of my childhood, from a personal development standpoint.

 

[GamerJM]

2006. I was 12 at the time, so in terms of age it's not abnormal, but honestly the big thing that changed that year is I started going on the internet and interacting with teenagers on a regular basis. I felt like that was the year I grew out of only ever paying attention to culture meant for children.

I consider childhood and teenage years to be a separate thing. My teenage years basically never ended....I'm still living with my parents and I still do shit like staying up until 4 AM playing video games on a regular basis, even though I have a "real" job.

 

[Doc Laserstein]

fifty

 

[Princess Viola]

Just in terms of 'memories', 2010. Started high school and, even though I'm only 24 (so I'm still just a young adult), I don't think of high school as being my 'childhood', middle school and earlier is childhood.

High school is my adolescence.

 

[Airegin]

18 for me. I have no idea what to call the period between 18-26 but it wasn't until 26 that I started feeling even close to being an adult. (31 now)

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I think it's 1992, but I'm not sure.

EDIT: Sneaky mod deleting their own post smh

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Still not sure why that happens.

Also, I love you.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

16.

It's when I really started to consider who I was in relation to other people instead of just what I wanted/what felt good. When birthdays stopped being an event. When I didn't have sleepovers with friends anymore. When all the goofy, innocent shenanigans like me and my friends lining up crushed goldfish crackers and snorting them, pretending we were doing cocaine, and thinking it was soooo funny because it was actually goldfish, ended. (No, that never turned to real cocaine). When drama started to become heavy and real instead of self-pitying and simply "less than ideal." When I stopped being an extension of my parents and really leaned into my own identity separate from them.

Sure, up until about age 19/20 I was still a kid in comparison to what being an actual adult is like. But 16 is when the shift happened, and noticeably so.

 

[Deleted member 6173]

23

 

[TitlePending]

Probably 14 when as a freshman.