If I Speak 97: When will I start feeling like a grown-up?
Jan 20, 2026
Explore the essence of adulthood, where caring for others takes center stage over age. Discover how responsibilities like parenting shift perceptions of maturity and end prolonged adolescence. The hosts tackle the emotional sustainability of caregiving and the autonomy that keeps some from those responsibilities. They also address the link between societal obligations and the decline in communal care. Plus, a listener dilemma about transforming a casual hookup into something more offers insights on honesty and vulnerability in relationships.
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Adulthood Is Defined By Care
- Adulthood is better defined by your relationship to care than by age or rites of passage.
- Taking on caring responsibilities often ends extended adolescence and creates self-knowledge.
Family Care Shifted Ash's Adulthood
- Ash describes her partner's younger brother becoming a very present father and how it made him seem older.
- She explains that taking on elder care similarly shifted her own sense of adulthood.
Extended Adolescence Is Socially Shaped
- Social breakdown and delayed life milestones extend adolescence for many.
- People simulate adulthood with consumer trappings rather than shared caring responsibilities.