Rate of maturity: Boys vs. girls

[NeouofPern]

This could be potentially an interesting topic. I was discussing it earlier with a friend, when he asked me why I was so sure I wouldn't find a guy who would go out with me. I mentioned the fact that at my age (15), most guys aren't willing to deal with the topic of cystic fibrosis, or think it's "weird" and "gross". So the question is, which gender do you think is able to deal with serious topics like a mature adult first? I cannot say the girls I know are any better, because I'm not sure of what their reactions would be.

[Milo]

Ummm, at age 15 just about everybody is immature. And 16... and 17... then girls mature (a little). I dont think guys do till they're in their mid forties...

ceptin' me of course.

[NeouofPern]

My closest friends and I are not immature... the girls anyway.

and you? Mature? :roll:

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

Typically girls mature faster than boys, both physically and mentally. But there are always exceptions and variations. It's not a concrete rule, just a generalization.

[Tony]

I dont think guys do till they're in their mid forties...
Hm....47 here and still way immature, must be a late developer ;)

[C_ris]

:rofl2:

[Lady Faizah]

From what I've seen... I don't think guys do mature. ;) There's a man up here who is at least in his sixties, and he's the most immature person I know. :razz:

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

:shhh: It's called senility :redfruit:

[Lady Faizah]

:shhh: It's called senility :redfruit:
I don't believe in senility. :razz: Alzheimers on the other hand... But he doesn't have that, so :razz:

[Keita]

I don't think you can generalise either way. I met some women in their 40s with two kids that were still immature (I shudder to think how those poor kids will turn out) and I've met some boys with FAR more sense in their little toes than even wise old men do. It depends a lot on your experience and your character (and the rearing of course). All these factors combined will determine the level of maturity. Age is not a good indicator for maturity, neither is gender.

[Kemala]

I think alot depends on your family life, your life experiences and all sorts of other reasons. It cannot really be stated one is more mature than the other

[cwolf]

It varies from person to person. I know someone who had to take care of her whole (one parent) household from her age of 11 on up. The kids were too young compared to her age, and her mother was extremely sick. Luckily there were some medical benefits coming in to help pay for bills.

As for me maturity wise, when I was 15 a friend was raped. While I admit that I couldn't possibly have had any knowledge on how to handle a situation like that... I definitely could have done it alot better. But that's hindsight for you.

[leahiniowa]

In Judaism, girls reach their legal adult age at 12. Boys at 13. This is due to the maturity gap.

Doc might be starting to get there - he's 52!

[jjmouse]

My closest friends and I are not immature...


:rofl2:

[Jay_Quessir]

Depends on the person, truly. I don't think it does someone good to be fully mature too young. I am mature most of the time, honestly, but I have my fits of immaturity and developement. I swear sometimes I have mood swings...I can be completely content and happy then go either sad or extremely mad at nothing. It may also be due to a brother of mine which really ticks me off!

I don't know...I suppose I'm mature but I know about 29/30 of the boys in my class are immature all the time. I'm the exception. I'm 15 and most of the girls I hang with are fairly mature....though not always. about 20/30 are immature most of the time.

I've delt with rough situations in a mature way and I've helped people through rough situations. I've spoken comfortably about most things but blood...*shivers* that's just something I can't deal with...

[jinnjinn]

Hmmm I do think it is more on bringing up more then anything. I am 23 and still not mature X3 Well, I can be serious...Though usually when I say I am being serious people often laugh oo;

[Faren]

I'm the most mature person in my household.;)

Well...I am!!:tantrum:

[T'ley]

I think I'm fairly mature. I am 18 though. My fave quote has got to be: you're only young once but you can be immature for ever!!!!!!!!!! I definitely think that this is a case of nurture over nature...

[Jaycee]

i think that girls do mature faster but can be just as immature as the boys i am pretty immature but can be resposible when around younger ones. but i dont want to get older cos i wont be able to have as much fun :(

[Teh Crazy Dragoness]

Well...it depends on hte individual, really. My little brother is incredible immature. 15 and he still has temper tantrums like a 3 yr old.

Not that I'm mature... :rofl2:

[Jaycee]

haha thats funny i aint mature either

[dae]

i'm an immuture person sometimes. It just despends on the person and whats going on around them and whats going on in their life.

[Lady Arwyn]

I agree that in general girls are more mature than guys, until maybe age 35 or so. This is most of the reason why I always dated older guys and married an older guy. I was an "early developer" and I think I scared away the guys my own age. I just had to be really careful of the older guys that were attracted by that same body.

As far as handling smething like CF, maybe an older guy (by a year or two, three at most) could deal with it. But just by living with CF, dealing with the reality of it, will mature a person beyond what is "normal", so don't expect the guys (or even your female classmates) to meet your maturity. My middle child, who has to deal with autistic siblings both older and younger than himself has that kind of advanced maturity, he was forced to grow up a bit early just to deal with his siblings.

Individually you can always find the really immature girl or really mature guy. Generalizations are just that.. generalizations.

[GoldriderAria]

That IS an interesting topic! Well, I can say that the girls *I* hung out with in High School were very mature. But that's because I avoided the ones who were immature, and I went to a private school where they expected you to act more mature than the "average" teenage girl! One of my best friends in High school found out our sophomore year she had ulcerative colitis and spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital over the next three years, and no one seemed to be freaked out by it. My particular group of friends also discussed things like politics, literature, critiqing films and books we'd read, going to see plays;we all took theatre, art, dance (or 2 of the three), and our idea of a party was crashing at someone's house with snacks (just us, the group of girls), and chatting for hours. Which isn't to say we weren't silly (we were often VERY silly!) but our outlets were things like writing movie scripts and doing theatre improv, punctuated by the occasional usual-girl stuff like a trip to the mall. ;)

I would say that the AVERAGE rate of maturity is roughly the same. Girls mature PHYSICALLY starting earlier, and the sociology course I took in College mentioned that in GENERAL women mature mentally earlier, and guys start later (and it's biological in general), but then my brother has been reasonably mature since he was 11 (he's 19 now), as have most of the guys I prefer to spend time with.

It might depend on how we define maturity and immaturity? To me "Immature" might roughly include: "ruled by hormones" "not thinking before acting, or acting rashly" "having foot-in-mouth syndrome" "acting selfishly the majority of the time" "behaving in a shallow manner".... things like that. However, immaturity is definitely subjective to some extent.

And I think that's my 2 cents. :) *quashes urges to keep writing*
Aria

[§Honeymouse§]

Personally I think that girls mature faster than boys, ( and its a generalisation) but I coule be a little bit bias on the matter *nods*

[Milo]

The most mature person I know is a boy. :razz: He's like a 55 year old in the body of a 16 year old. Want's to be POTUS, and has as good a chance as any his age.

[Lenne]

Guys definately mature later than girls. Why do you think so many women marry guys who are two to three years older than them or more? Women I believe mature emotionally faster than men do.
My husband is 28, I'm about to be 25. In some respects, concerning life experiences, he is more mature than because he's been out on his own longer than i have. On the other hand, he's almost 30 and thinks fart jokes are funny, burping funny and various other gross things are funny. Would he have been ready for marriage had we met when I was 22 and he was 25? Most definately not. He was still too busy goofing off at bars and such with his friends. Now he finds that immature. I found that immature when I was 22.
Go figure.

[Milo]

Guys definately mature later than girls. Why do you think so many women marry guys who are two to three years older than them or more? Women I believe mature emotionally faster than men do.Because that's the way it's been for eons, men marrying far younger women, and nobody likes to change.

My husband is 28, I'm about to be 25. In some respects, concerning life experiences, he is more mature than because he's been out on his own longer than i have. On the other hand, he's almost 30 and thinks fart jokes are funny, burping funny and various other gross things are funny. Would he have been ready for marriage had we met when I was 22 and he was 25? Most definately not. He was still too busy goofing off at bars and such with his friends. Now he finds that immature. I found that immature when I was 22.
Go figure.
It doesn't make him immature, it means that he has a different sense of humor than you.

I think puns and lame jokes are hilarious. Others do not... :shrug:

[Jay_Quessir]

My aunt, 45, still hasn't matured...I love her to pieces though. Oh, she can be serious and all but she's wacky...

Girls vs. Boys...typically its girls who are a little bit faster but maturity doesn't really start to show mentally until after college...cause girls are still judgemental and guys are still jerks...Some never grow out of it.

*didn't realize that he posted here half a year ago*

[NoAngel]

I think that girls mature faster, I just need to look at my boyfriend to know that. :P. He is only 14 though...so that might explain things...

[Madrigal]

I think it doesn't have as much to do with gender as it has to do with what's happened in someone's life. Anyone who's been dealing with death, serious illnesses, etc. is likely to grow up quickly--especially if the people who're supposed to take care of them are worried enough to force the kid to learn to fend for him/herself (emotionally, at least).

As for people being freaked out by illnesses... when I'm seriously sick, I don't let anyone know until after the fact. The doctor thinks I might have cancer--then he's proven wrong, and I tell someone. Their reaction "OMG U MIGHT DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I have meningitis after a long break during which I wasn't in contact with anyone at school. I tell someone. She decides she must have it and I've killed her by not being responsible (get that), etc. When I was younger, at my old school, people would take you being ill as an excuse to beat you up. (That was a prep school where you had to act very, very mature... until the teachers weren't looking.)

Rough situations--times when my life *hasn't* had a few going on at once are rare. Mostly things I don't talk about, but I think I can safely say I grew up.

One other note about maturity--generally, people who are mature don't go around talking about how 'mature' they are unless the topic is directly brought up. Someone who talks about how he's so mature and everyone else is a whiny little brat is generally not mature at all.

[granath]

Girls hit puberty faster than boys on the average, although obviously there are huge individual differences. Emotional maturity usually lags behind physical maturity in both genders, and what being mature means is also defined by culture.

[Bamy]

Girls tend to mature faster than boys mentally but physically I think they level peg.

[Bobbsy]

Maturity is a highly over-rated concept!

My signature used to be "You're only young once...but you can be immature as long as you want!".

:)

Bobbsy

[T'ley]

I agree with bobbsy's sentiment. I think it's not overall maturity but on specific topics. I can be verry imature sometimes but very at others. Well what can you expect of uni students.:evil:

[Bane]

I thnk it totally depends on the person and the situation. A boy of 14 that's been through rough times is going to be more mature and responsible than a girl of the same age who has had everything she needs.

This past year I had the very unfortunate responsibility of caring for my dying grandmother. For two months I lived with her. I watched her go from walking unassisted, to walking with a cane, to walking with a walker, to rarely walking, to needing help in and out of a wheelchair. I was holding her hand when she passed on. There were days when I had to stop. The emotional drain of what I was doing was so much that my bf came in and found me sitting in the shower after I had been in there for two hours. I couldn't stand up on my own. A lot of people wouldn't have been able to do that, but I had to or my family would have tucked my grandma away in a nursing home. I wouldn't have been able to handle that. I think that's maturity.

I don't think a lot of the people in high school are very mature. In my experience, middle and high school students have always needed to have their friends approve of them. Without their friends, they're nothing. (Mind, I'm generalizing. There are exceptions to this!!) A lot of it also has to do with parents over-coddling their children. Children often learn maturity (or whatever they think it is) from their parents. If the parents aren't mature, the children either won't be mature either, or they'll be too mature and miss out on all the fun in their childhood.

[Bobbsy]

Hmmm one comment.

I always take a person's statement regarding their OWN state of maturity with a large pinch of salt. I mean no offence, but I have yet to meet a teenager who wasn't totally sure of their own maturity (and usually the relative immaturity of other teenagers) despite frequent evidence to the contrary.

Indeed, claims of maturity are often signs of immaturity...if that makes any sense.

In my experience, the older you get, the more you realise your own limitations.

Bobbsy

[Lady Arwyn]

There are generalities (statistical probabilities) and individual cases. In general, girls are more mature than boys, both physically and emotionally, until about age 25. This is a heaviliy studied phenenomen. However, there are always individuals who do not fit. There are always immature girls and mature boys.

[Bobbsy]

There are generalities (statistical probabilities) and individual cases. In general, girls are more mature than boys, both physically and emotionally, until about age 25. This is a heaviliy studied phenenomen. However, there are always individuals who do not fit. There are always immature girls and mature boys.

Oh, no doubt girls mature a bit more quickly than boys, LA. However, male or female, I've yet to meet a teenager who didn't have a slightly overblown idea of their maturity.

For that matter, by my age I suspect we have an "underblown" (is that a word?) idea of how old they seem!

Bobbsy

[Rabble]

The most mature person I know is a boy. :razz: He's like a 55 year old in the body of a 16 year old. Want's to be POTUS, and has as good a chance as any his age.
He wants to be what? :confused:

[Lady Arwyn]

Potus = President Of The United States

[nudedude1]

Girls first, then after about 5 years guys try to catch up.