conuly

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Is there another way of expressing that second concept that doesn't sound quite so silly? I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but some of us have much more practice being adults than others, also, we've got that frontal lobe development stuff going on. (Man, my knowledge of neurology is crap, but you know what I mean. We're closer to being finished cooking and our decision making is less screwy.) Anyway, sometimes it's useful to have a way to say this.

On the other hand, the inherent silliness of "adulter adult" might make spelling out the difference a bit less offensive.

I'm gonna backdate this. Jenn sometimes reads my journal, so I'll give this a date in March so she doesn't see it, because she's going to laugh at me. Usually, of course, I date all my posts ahead so that if I miss a day you can't see it by looking at my calendar.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

topaz_eyes

More experienced? More seasoned?

From:

ysabetwordsmith

Experienced adults
Established adults
Practiced adults

In some cases, you might say "mentor adults" who are teaching younger adults how to get on. Closely related, housemother or housefather for someone in charge of a household of new adults (as at a college).

I agree, it's a useful distinction. I tend to say "new adults" for people in the 18-25 range or thereabouts. Legal adults, but inexperienced with independent living as yet.

The problem with "young adult" is that people have falsely applied this to people who are NOT adults, but tweens and teens, often listed as 12-17.

From:

gatheringrivers

"have their shit together" is how someone put it to me once.

From:

hashiveinu

The Sims calls it "young adult" vs. "adult," but that doesn't really translate outside that context.

Generational labels might be able to express some of what you're looking for.

From:

silveradept

"More mature adults" is a construction that might work, without having to get into ages or other such.

From:

conuly

Yeah, but then I'm specifically calling them immature.

If the context is "Stop leaving your trash all over the place, the garbage is RIGHT THERE" I might want to call them immature, but if it's just "Here's a life tip I wish I'd known when I was your age that you would do well to take from me rather than learning the hard way like everybody else" I don't want to suggest that the problem is that they're more childish than they ought to be rather than that the lack life experience because, I mean, of course they do.

From:

conuly

Though most of those contexts are somewhere in the middle, as in "Listen, you probably ought to know this by now, but just in case, as the adulter adult I feel I should tell you that you need to turn the handles in when cooking. Haven't seen you screwing it up, but as I'm cooking and you're in the room I may as well take a moment!" or "Yes, I did interrupt your private conversation, because there's only five of us at this table and it's your mother's birthday, so as the, um, adulter adult I think you should know this is a no side convo situation."

From:

silveradept

Ah. In those situations, I would default to "the more experienced adult" if I were feeling formal, or possibly "the old fart" if I were feeling self-deprecating.

From:

elainegrey

Christine and i referred to children as "short people who haven't lived very long". As most of are nephews are now bleeping tall, i suppose we'd say "tall people who haven't been tall that long." I suppose i've been a tall person for a while and i am becoming shorter. SIGH.

All that to say, maybe some proxy for adulthood that is less loaded, as "As someone who has been cooking since the cretaceous" or "As someone who has sat through more meals"....

From:

elainegrey

But i'll be looking for a chance to use adulter adult.

From:

lassarina

I don't have a useful input, but I'm laughing because my mother gave me a wooden sign for Christmas that says "I'm an adult, but not, like, a real adult" and it's perfect for me. (I do in fact perform adulthood pretty competently, but I never really think of myself as a grownup.)