Of course age has some affect on relationships. You may hear many ppl saying "Oh age is only a number", and it is, but it isnt too.


But maturity is really an attitude rather than a number. Some1 14 may act 18, or they may be childish to the point of....u know...."Get me away from him/her" childish. But it largely depends apon the induvidual.

Here is my input:

Age is a number, AND a level of maturity; but neither have to corrospond with each other on a small scale. But, of course, a 15 y/o isnt expected to act 67. The induvidual person has a chronological age, and a "mental" age, which can be wide and varied. You just need to know the induvidual to better determine their chronological age and mental age. Think about it..........

really...think....

WOW OH WOW

this is really gonna make me reconsider how far I'm willing to go with age..

I haven't even read all of it, but .. wow

I've been having troubles with how much of a range to give myself.. since I'll be 18 on the 11th then the becoming legal thing can severely get in the way of any relationships, looks like I have more thinking and reading to do

Two huge factors play here in my opinion. Age and maturity. While age does influence maturity, there is no linear line you can throw down that says well this person is 13 therefore he is this mature. You can say that he is about this mature but if maturity were a number the standard deviation (range) would be huge because of personal experiences.

When a person is 13, in very rare cases are they capable of having the maturity of somebody whom is 17 or older. However the converse is not true, a 17 year old could EASILY have the maturity of a 13 year old. We probably see at least fifty of em a day >>;

Maturity is one of those things that starts at nil and builds up over time (age).

As for the age gap, the reason it exists is two fold.

1) Legal Issues
2) Maturity Issues

Legal issues actually attribute to just about every aspect of it because that is what causes any result. People shun a 13 year old being with a 19 year old because it is illegal. If it weren't illegal, people wouldn't be predisposed towards being against it and would only be capable of being against it if they were to understand the maturity issues.

The maturity issues lie between the two individuals in order to procure a healthy relationship. When I say healthy relationship, I mean love, not hey lets hook up and have sex at random times. When the maturity barrier reaches it's limit between two age-distant people, that is generally the point where you should not involved in a relationship.

One point I need to clarify though is the reverse maturity statement I proposed earlier. By my own argument it would be fine for a 12 year old and an 18 year old with the maturity of a 12 year old to date. Hence I would set the line at dating at the maturity level of 17 years. I would say 16, but I would also like to argue that people that are dating at the age of 16 and are doing well are probably mature for their age. And of course, both parties must be consensual and looking for a real relationship.

KawaiiSeanSan wrote:

QUOTE:
Two huge factors play here in my opinion. Age and maturity. While age does influence maturity, there is no linear line you can throw down that says well this person is 13 therefore he is this mature. You can say that he is about this mature but if maturity were a number the standard deviation (range) would be huge because of personal experiences.

If we are talking about romantic relationships only than I agree with this completely, and would venture to say that people of two completely varying maturity levels wouldn't even be able to make a romantic relationship work.

If we are talking about the legal aspects that go along with this, it would make it too hard to put a guide to it, it would have to be case by case and would be too much of an imposition on everyone to try and sort out if each relationship is legally allowed.

KawaiiSeanSan wrote:

QUOTE:
Maturity is one of those things that starts at nil and builds up over time (age).

Agreed, different people do mature faster than others due to whatever circumstances they find themselves in.

KawaiiSeanSan wrote:

QUOTE:
One point I need to clarify though is the reverse maturity statement I proposed earlier. By my own argument it would be fine for a 12 year old and an 18 year old with the maturity of a 12 year old to date. Hence I would set the line at dating at the maturity level of 17 years. I would say 16, but I would also like to argue that people that are dating at the age of 16 and are doing well are probably mature for their age. And of course, both parties must be consensual and looking for a real relationship.

I am not entirely sure that I agree with a need for a maturity of 16 to be able to date (assuming that establishing matuiry in every case is possible). I would however, like to request one point of definition to make sure that we are arguing for or against the same point. By dating what is it that you mean?

i dont think that age has anything to do with anything!

if you're mature about it and actually love each other, who's to stop you?

there_i_go wrote:

QUOTE:
if you're mature about it and actually love each other, who's to stop you?

The cops if they think you have done something wrong. The parents of the younger person if they disapprove.

ok my turn i read what evrery one said and i think its a good thing to chat about im 14 but my thinking is someone older my teacher said its the place where i live and how i was bought up i have never been alowed to see tv so all the things i think about are the things i did like piano music poems and studys so i read alot and talk alot and ask loads of things i want to know so my mind is older in some ways becasue if the things i do and study and i didnt dreaam in tv films so i guess if ur alowed to watch tv and dont read and study and work your brain then its not gonna be mature than the age and when it comes to sex stuff i dont talk about and i dont let people talk to me about it because my brain thinks harder and says if i waite till im 18 then it will be better becasue i will know and understand it better it is real hard to explain what i mean but i guess the maturtiy depends on how they was alowed to grow and the enviroment they grew up in like my family are strict but not real bad but it made me grow up alot faster but some people stay the age they are in the brain or younger beacuse they didnt know difrent and cant make a strong jugment and leave it to other people to choose for them and follow there lead im sorry if this dont make sense but it is hard to say what i mean

I think that made some sense. I do agree that the situations of growing up do make an impact on how quickly some people mature. I don't think that being a certain age will suddenly give insight though. People are ready when they are and they should be able to know it. Question though is how can we decide how to let people know, I'm not sure that made sense....=/

some people can tell u there ready but some cant or wont incase they go red but its a real hard one the law has a age u can do stuff so thats the start i guess but then u got the ones who r gonna do it becasue they follow and think its ok to but if there imiture then u cant tell they might say yes but then feel real bad and dirty becasue they did it because u did then u got them that r gonna waite for u do start and ur gonna waite for them to start so it never starts so i guess u cant tell all the time u have to be real careful shawn this is a bugger of a topic to choose my brain hurts now

Topics not just for me Carlos I like the hard questions though

The law is the law, but I think part of this question is really whether the law is right or not. There are some people that are ready before they are legally allowed to, and some that aren't even after they are allowed to by law. Also we could ask which counry has the right laws for it. I know that currently there are many countries that disagree on the age that it should be, and the age in the same country can be different depending on the type of act (i.e. straight sex has a lower age of consent then gay sex). The question of equality there isn't really needed for the discussion, but with such varying laws how can we trust that one is better than another?