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New York Magazine has an intriguing and somewhat exhaustive article on grownups who maybe aren’t grownups at all.
The author makes some interesting points about how so many thirty and forty-somethings have not followed the path of their parents and grandparents into adulthood, and have perhaps gone to great lengths to avoid those traditional manifestations of parenting and growing up (although I would say that plenty of people still do).
At the same time, I was a bit put off by the author’s focus on clothes and lifestyle choices. Is adulthood really defined by working 9 to 5 and wearing a suit? Are you really putting off adulthood if you wear distressed jeans and pumas instead of Brooks Brothers and pursue a flexible schedule?
Most of the “grups” (her word for grownups who haven’t grown up) she interviewed seem to be paying the rent/mortgage, raising children, and managing a budget.
Are their (okay, our) music and fashion choices really an indicator of immaturity or is it just funkier window dressing? Is pursuing more unusual career choices in life past age 30 a sign of immaturity or a sign of greater opportunity in modern culture (especially for women)?
What does it mean to be an adult?
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Comment by Brian J on 12 October 2006, 21:53