Frank Frstenberg's Growing Up Is Harder To Do

“Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire other,” says Virginia Woolf, an English writer. Growing up is preordained. Everyone grows up. When do we grow up? Perhaps, after we graduate school, maybe after our first love, or maybe after our marriage or maybe after the birth of our first kid. It primarily depends on how one looks at it, but irrespective of what we consider the right time or the right situation to be “grown-ups”, we cannot help but admit that it is that moment in time where innocence vanishes. As children, we dream of growing up, getting a job, getting married, living happily but on the contrary it is quite different, we find that reality is completely opposite. More often than we wish, we were still children,

Well-known essayist, short story writer and editor, Joseph Epstein, in his observational essay, The Perpetual Adolescent, indicate that modern adults behave much more childish than their previous generation peers. The Epstein’s purpose is to reveal to the reader that nowadays, people want to stay young forever. He creates a contemptuous tone in order to convey to his readers the picture of contemporary grownups’, and suggests how ridicules their immature behavior is. He’s addressing young and middle age people, and pointing out that it’s taking them too much time to grow up and mature.

As the mother of seven grown children, I agree with most of Jeffrey Arnett’s, author of Emerging Adulthood, theories. It is a time of change, with a developmental connection between adolescence and adulthood. During this phase of development, children experience periods of self-discovery transformation. There are favorable outcomes as well as adverse effects during this developmental stage. Furthermore, this successive stage encourages and promotes the change from the dependency of their parents to the independence that is distinctive for adults. This autonomy is beneficial because it prepares the emerging adult for their future independently from their parents. Arnett believes there are five characteristics of emerging adulthood that make it distinguishable from other time periods: the age of identity explorations, the age of instability, the self-focused age, the age of feeling in-between, and the age of possibilities.

In the magazine article "What Is It About 20-Somethings," Robin Marantz Henig discussed the stagnant transcendence of adolescents into adulthood with society and economy evolve to accomodate people's needs. Most make it into the realm of adulthood once they surpass these milestones: "completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child". However, some linger in a new stage called the "emerging adulthood," where they spend more time than others to explore their identity and to develop "sense of possibilities". Causes for the delay include cultural expectation, dependence on parents, change in hierarchy of needs, and adolescent brain development. And as a result, society become uncertain whether to extend

“The Perpetual Adolescent” is an observational piece by Joseph Epstein. He suggests that modern adult acts much more childish than the previous generations of middle aged people. A big part of acting like a younger person is dressing like a younger person. According to Epstein, the dressed down adult is the immature adult, which in turn leads to many adults trying to copy the modern and hip youth culture. This in turn created more relaxed environments across all career fields, leaving less “true” adults. He feels that American now want to stay young forever instead of maturing into the adults of their parent's generations. Epstein believes that this mentality is flawed, leaving the people in positions of power striving

In Henry G. Felsens essay “ When does a boy become a man” Henry G. Felsen primarily argues that adulthood is not given from copying what is interpreted as being ‘adult-like’ behaviour by adolescences through the use of drugs , promiscuous sex, truancy, a lack of responsibility and much, much more. The author prefers to encourage the concept that “real” adulthood is met by meeting responsibilities without being told to, or constantly reminded to. The reader of this essay would most likely be adolescence; this can be explained by the way he put interludes in which the author appears to be communicating to a 16 year old boy in an attempt to explain to him what adulthood means and to young women by addressing them as tittering in high heels in

What does it mean to grow up? Does it mean washing your car, paying your bills, getting a job? Does it mean getting married, having kids, and sprouting gray hair? Is it necessary? Is everyone capable of it? Is it going to be hard and will it be worth the effort? All of these questions are probably what made Peter Pan decide to never leave Neverland. Growing up means a lot of different things to many different people. If we look at the words “growing up”, we simply think of the physical aspect of ageing, growing tall and wide. But for most people, growing up means something deeper involving a change in the approach that an individual has to life and the actions that are taken with it. In this essay, we will look at why people have

For those of us that are parents, we know that raising a child to adulthood is not an easy task but one which we do lovingly (hopefully) and responsibly. I’ll go out on a limb to say here that everyone agrees that the teenage years are the most challenging. The general consensus is that teenagers are unruly, aggressive, careless, spoiled and dependent on technology. On the other hand, I believe along with a small group of other parents that teenagers are also brilliant and in the process of becoming and reaching their potential and that they deserve much more respect than what they are given.

Growing up is major in everyone’s lives. It also has huge effects on children who are learning to be more mature. The difference is the children rushing their childhood to grow up, and the children who become scared and saddened by the reality of growing up. Overall, growing up is an emotional rollercoaster, that changes the way people see themselves, feel, and act. Sadness fills unprepared children's’ minds when becoming older.

Being an adult is the number one thing that children want to be: The desire to get older to do things that you want when you want and having no one say otherwise. However, what is an adult? An ambiguous term that really falls into the hands of the individual, where at Sixteen you can drive, eighteen you can vote, and twenty-one you can drink, for those in the USA, all varying ages that individuals could use as indications of adulthood. Robin Heinig wrote and article “What is it about 20- somethings?” where she discusses Arnett’s proposal about a new developmental stage, “Emerging Adulthood”. Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, an American professor in psychology, believes that we aren 't entering adulthood till the later portions of our twenties. For some, this may be true but for the general population including myself I find this hard to believe. Leo Hendry’s article, “How universal is emerging adulthood? An empirical example”, on emerging adulthood gives a deeper understanding to what this generation 's kids are going through. The late teens are a crucial part to the lives of a young adult. It 's the time that we spend trying to identify ourselves, escape the circumstance that we are put into at a younger age, or just had a better family income. Arnett is not wrong, but all other external factors need to be accounted for before we know, or even consider if emerging adulthood is a new developmental stage.

On the other hand, some young adults milk money right out of their parents. They don’t have to have a job nor do they have responsibilities (Henig, p. 268). Obviously this does not teach them how to obtain a successful and comfortable life. Young adults today need to be motivated and supported throughout their early adult life. This will help ensure that they get a job and have a sense of being independent.

From adolescence to late adulthood, our lives change drastically. Our goals, achievements and conceptions of life differentiate as we mature. As we grow older, we no longer concern ourselves with self-identity or the opinions of others, but instead we focus on our accomplishments and evaluate our life (if we lived a meaningful life). From adolescence to late adulthood, we experience different developmental tasks at a particular place in our life span.

The aim of this assignment is to compare and contrast childhood vs adulthood. The data was collected from the internet. How adults wish to go back to the bitter sweet days of their childhood and to leave the stress of work and finances behind. Children wishing they were already grown up. Not realizing that once they lose their innocence and have to try and make it in his fast pace society.

According to the article, “Grow Up? Not So Fast”, Lev Grossman states that the phenomenon of “twixters” is becoming more common and usual. “Twixters” who are from 18 to 25 and even beyond have become separate life stage. In other words, they are trapped between adolescence and adulthood. Twixters do not want to grow up too fast and step into the adult world. Some of the sociologists believed that it is a chance to let the young generation to choose their life style and search their goal. However, some of the economist believed that the cultural machinery used to turn kids into grownups has broken down. However, this phenomenon is not only caused by the moral of the society but also the economy of the society. Therefore, Lev Grossman

All children need some sort of adult figure to be able to provide for them. Adults play an important role in the life of a young person. In many scenarios it is our hope that adults use the knowledge they have acquired throughout their life to positively influence and assist in guiding a young person in a positive direction or to produce their full potential in general. If adults are dedicated to the development and progression of the generation of youth that we heavily influence changes for an in the future have a larger chance of actually being fulfilled. Public opinion polls reveal that American adults are concerned about young people (Scales, 2003). These studies support the important role