Anyone Feel Immature for Their Age?

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Parents and teachers found I was too mature for my age when I was younger. Now I think about it, it might have been related to the fact that I never required too much attention and rarely asked for company. Also the fact that I learned basic self-care and housekeeping skills at a very early age. I learned how to read at age 4 and ever since I have always been able to keep myself amused and this coupled with an excellent memory for facts ensured that I did well in school without any external help.

In a family where the father was existing but unreliable and always causing trouble, and the mother was overwhelmed with my brother's chronic ilness, marriage and in-law trouble, etc. while also working full-time, I guess that my being self-sufficient and low-maintenance kid was viewed as an asset and also as a sign of maturity ''oh, she does understand everything and tries to help, poor darling''. Heh. All I knew at the time was that I don't want to be the cause or get involved in yet another domestic strife. I had these on a daily basis.
When, however, I gained the right to be as mature as I like, I somehow reversed the polarity and now, at the age of 35, I am as immature as a normal 14-year old (sorry, wouldn't want to offend 14-year olds).
Perhaps it shows too much, and with the fact that I look younger, I usually get treated in a condescending manner designed specifically for overemotional teenagers, I presume. God how I hate it. Usually I feel an urge to smack the person over the head with my diplomas when it happens.

I am and I'm not.
I am too mature to hang out with my teenage cousin and all her teenage friends, who sit there flicking their hair, or on their phones arguing with their friends over a boy or trying to get eachother to ask out/dump a boy for them, or arguing over the ''I'm not talking to you'' issue. Ohh, I hate all that! I feel I've long grown out of that, and I do feel mature and comfortable enough to spend time with adults, maybe 18 upwards (because most 18 year olds start growing out of all that nonesense). Also I get bored playing video games like football or car games. I like games what older people enjoy without having to be immature, like the Sims on pc. Also playing with toys bored me about 5 years ago, so I'm not immature there.

Hence, I am immature in other ways. Like I would keep talking nonstop when I know that others in the sitting-room are trying to watch the telly, so my mum had to buy some lollypops for me to suck while their favourite programme is on, to keep me quiet, (I know it's like giving a 2 year old a dummy to keep it quiet - but it does help!)
Also, (I'm not sure if this is child-like), but each time there is news what my mum wants to tell me but can't because she knows it'd send me into a meltdown, she waits 'til I'm at home alone, then texts me from where ever she is and tells me the news over text, so it can give me a chance to go mad while nobody is there suffering the atmosphere. I think that's just invalid behaviour of me - but it also works.

So I'll say sometimes I can feel like a 2 year old (not as in ret*d), and other times I feel like a 13 year old, and other times I feel my age, and even sometimes I feel like a 70 year old when I complain about everything.

Last edited by Joe90 on 23 Nov 2010, 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm 30... Internally I'm probably still 21 or so.

But I do still have some toys and watch anime from time to time. I still have a decent Transformer toy collection that I started about 6 years ago. Some of this stuff is still too cool to give up. And of course, I still like Legos too.

I can still act mature though... as boring as that is.

OK this is embarrassing, but my youngest cousin is 13 now, and I don't want him to be 14 next year because then he will start growing too old for playing games on the trampoline with me. I wouldn't play games on my own or with another adult, because I will get bored, but sometimes with a child it is fun, and gives you an excuse (especially your siblings or cousins).

My uncle is 49 years old this year, and he loves climbing trees in the woods. He even loves running onto rocks and jumping off them, and walking along low walls, and playing in the sea at the seaside. And he's NT.

This thread is making me smile

I am going to be 45 next month (not sure if/how I can show just my age and not entire birth date). Sometimes I feel like a kid, other times a teenager, yet others possibly my mid-20's, others in my later years, and even at times.. ageless.

I am easily amused and undistracted by "grown up" things at times. I can go to a toy store and just.. live. I am even more in love with puzzles now than when I was a kid.. and I LOVED puzzles then. Since I am a paraplegic and spend time in bed, and often find need for certain things, we have a wall unit/bookshelf type bed. Above it are all of my stuffed animals, tons of Winnie the Pooh stuff. I even have a 6' Panda. They all have names (if they did not already, such as Tigger and Co). I also make sound effects for things, always have. I love farts and burps, and time, place, event, whatever.. doe snot matter, I am in hysterics, and will likely try to contribute. I also blurt things out (mild Tourette's), usually "hinee hole" "farts" among other ruder/nonsensical things). I have thought on this, and have wondered why I do not seem to feel like others my age (or close to it) seem like they feel.. and act. Grown-ups still seem like grown-ups to me.

Oddly though, teenagers seem immature to me, and many adults seem more like brats than kids I knew when I was a kid.

And then I feel ageless. Contemplating things that very few people ever do, and for those that do.. usually it is in the deep woods alone, or a laboratory or campus. I will see the entire human race as this band of arrogant infants, possibly experiencing their "terrible twos." I am absolutely and completely unable to comprehend the seemingly innate stupidity, and blinding urges this species is so completely victim to. Even the simplest thing to me seems beyond most of them.. they just do not "get it." Then the symphony in my head begins, I remember that I am one of these humans, and as such, have a very, very VERY limited possible lifespan. To waste on these things would be... And then it is time for music. To allow those tiny strings within to sing awhile.. an ageless song...

Very much so! I still feel like I'm about 10 years old. I'm not married, am living back home with my parents, and I don't drive - I think all these things conspire to make me feel immature. Plus I've always looked younger than I am. I am quite responsible, though, and like to stick to the rules. I also find it way easier to get on with kids than with adults. Kids tend to be more accepting and less judgmental than adults. Guess I'm a female Peter Pan.

I very much relate to what others have said: being treated as younger by people your own age. I waited around for the magic portal to open when I turned 18, but I must have missed it.

I'm not interested in "grown up talk" anyway... work, mortgages, what new crap someone's going to buy next payday...YAWN!

I don't feel like I'm immature, I just feel like no matter how abrasive the world can be, its wonders are not lost on me. 'Mature' people let the important things get muddled up by the daily detaild that pile up all around them. It seems most adult people are so caught up in getting the lowest interest rate on their home loan, or meeting arbitrary deadlines, or are as obsessive about keeping up with the Jones'es as I am about modifying my computer and smartphone.
I feel like while 'the grown ups' are caught up in the politics of their interpersonal relationships and daily struggles, I am making daisy chains or skipping stones across the surface of the water. I am capable of being mature, but I just don't seem to have nearly the same degree of interest in it as others my age.

I am so immature that my parents have to give me a lollypop to keep me quiet, while they're watching their favourite programme. If I didn't have the lollypop, I would accidently start talking about either my special interests or my anxieties, which will result in me being told to get out of the room until the programme is finished. The lollypop helps shut me up throughout their favourite programme time.

Can anyone be more babyish than that????! !! !

I'm almost 29 and agree with Marshall, I find the adult world a very dull place. I have to be grown up all day at work and around my family, but when I am by myself I do indulge in rock skipping, drawing cartoons, and tree climbing. I do not understand why people assume I should want to get married? I am perfectly happy being a single albeit eccentric woman.

I have two kids and was married twice and I still feel younger than my age. I played with my children the whole time they were growing up. We would have water balloon fights and water gun fights whenever possible. In fact, I still have my two super soakers water guns. I watched cartoons with them and I still like to watch cartoons but I don't have my TV hooked up. We dance and do all kinds of silly stuff when were together. We played and practiced soccer. We would have Christmas wrapping paper cardboard roll fights through the house. We drove their father crazy at times, poor old guy. My second husband was very playful and young at heart too.

Don't feel bad, there is nothing wrong with it. My family thinks I act strange for my age too. My kids have told me that I'm not like other moms. I have always been responsible but there is nothing wrong with having fun at any age.

I love to swing, I was actually thinking about that earlier today and how it's been too long since I have done it. I'm 48 years old and I absolutely love to swing.

I can so relate to so many of the things that people have said. For one thing, I love Disney Cartoon movies, absolutely adore and collect stuffed animals, can't relate to people my age. I'm not married and I don't have any children. And many more things too.

Me too! It's such a nice sensation rocking back and forth.

I feel this way exactly. But I don't know how to beat it either? Mayb fitting in with my peers which I don't. I went to private schools for high school and I completely alienated myself.. I feel kinda hopeless sometimes. It f****n sux but I'll keep going.

Well if u figure it out let me know

Yep, I'm 35, and I really don't know how I got here. I don't feel grown up at all. Plus my memory is so solid I seem to experience time differently than most of the people around me in my day-to-day life. Besides that, I like to play video games, play with Legos, eat junk food, shop in the junior's department, listen to music that my husband says is for kids, and if I happen to have a little to much to drink -- watch out. I will bounce off the walls, dance on tables and run around like a teenager.
I do my best to keep my maturity at least an arm-length away, but it rarely gets too close except in emergency situations.