Back in the day when I was 18, I dated this one guy who was the same age. I remember making some sort of a reference to being a teenager, and him asking me "you consider yourself a teenager?" I said yes…eighTEEN; back then (and to this day) I consider everyone between the ages of 13 and 19 a teenager until age 20. His argument was that, while it technically that may be true, in his mind…because he worked full time, paid bills, had familial responsibilities, and so on and so forth, that he (despite being 18 years old) had too much of an adult lifestyle to group himself in the category of being "teenager." To him that term represented being a kid, and he didn't consider himself that.

I guess I understood where he was coming from, but his rationalization to me just made him seem like a wannabe adult, which is something teenagers are famous for.

I agree, if there's a TEEN in your number, you are a TEENager.

Supernova wrote:

I agree, if there's a TEEN in your number, you are a TEENager.

not much way around that & nothing wrong with it either. You become an adult soon enough & wish for some of those carefree days again.

Yeah. 18 and 19 yr olds are teenagers.

Nhaiyel wrote:

Back in the day when I was 18, I dated this one guy who was the same age. I remember making some sort of a reference to being a teenager, and him asking me "you consider yourself a teenager?" I said yes…eighTEEN; back then (and to this day) I consider everyone between the ages of 13 and 19 a teenager until age 20. His argument was that, while it technically that may be true, in his mind…because he worked full time, paid bills, had familial responsibilities, and so on and so forth, that he (despite being 18 years old) had too much of an adult lifestyle to group himself in the category of being "teenager." To him that term represented being a kid, and he didn't consider himself that.

I guess I understood where he was coming from, but his rationalization to me just made him seem like a wannabe adult, which is something teenagers are famous for.

As I said on Chris' topic about at what age do you think someone is an adult, if an 18-19 year old is keeping a roof over their head, feeding themselves, etc., I think they're a teenager in name only. Granted that isn't the norm and you can still do immature things at that age but so can "adults". Some people never seem to grow up. I wonder what the political landscape would be if politicians were as worried about the 18-25 year old demographic as they were about AARP members.