Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share How Your Attitude Toward Maturity Affects Your Child
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
How Your Attitude Toward Maturity Affects Your Child
[Week 10 of 52 Weeks to a Better Relationship With Your Child]
Getting a grip on maturity
When is a person mature? Is it when he or she reaches a certain age? Is it when a driver’s test can be passed? Perhaps it is when a person can refrain from fruitless argument?
Maturity is often claimed as a measure for independence, or when a person can be recognized as an adult. Yet everyone knows adults they would describe as immature. Maybe the concept of maturity is not well understood or used consistently.
Understanding physical maturity helps to understand mental maturity
Let’s start by distinguishing between physical and mental maturity. Physical maturity is easier to measure. I think we can accept that maturity means “having reached a point of optimum potential use or ability” and we can say that a person is physically mature when all physical functions are fully operational.
This helps us with the definition of mental maturity, since it is restricted to potential. Consider this example: a person who is physically mature has the potential to procreate, but they do not have to procreate to be physically mature. The potential is all that matters.
Similarly, someone who is mentally mature has the potential to make helpful decisions. That does not mean he will. In both cases, the person may choose how fully to take advantage of the state of mature capabilities.
Maturity is not the same as wisdom
Having obtained a state of maturity is not the same as having experience or wisdom. It is mental maturity that makes it possible to learn from experience or handle mistakes. Hopefully, this will in turn result in increasing wisdom. Mental maturity is the potential to problem solve.
A little observation will remind us that maturity cannot be dependent on having all the necessary information to make a decision. Not only are we all always learning as individuals, but what is accepted as general knowledge is very subject to change. Think about adventurous people have frequently been labeled immature, but over time their adventures lead to discoveries that we all benefit from.
Responsibility whether you want it or not
The counter point to having the potential to make a useful decision is having the potential to bear the responsibility for it. Here we must differentiate between legal restrictions on bearing responsibility and mental potential to bear responsibility. It also doesn’t matter whether or not a person reacts to the responsibility poorly or chooses to act childlike. The fact remains that there is a point where a person can bear responsibility. Most adults recognize this and don’t want to bear other people’s responsibility.
Fortunately, physical maturity closely coincides with mental maturity. This combination gives a newly mature person
View all episodes
By Laura Blodgett[Week 10 of 52 Weeks to a Better Relationship With Your Child]
Getting a grip on maturity
When is a person mature? Is it when he or she reaches a certain age? Is it when a driver’s test can be passed? Perhaps it is when a person can refrain from fruitless argument?
Maturity is often claimed as a measure for independence, or when a person can be recognized as an adult. Yet everyone knows adults they would describe as immature. Maybe the concept of maturity is not well understood or used consistently.
Understanding physical maturity helps to understand mental maturity
Let’s start by distinguishing between physical and mental maturity. Physical maturity is easier to measure. I think we can accept that maturity means “having reached a point of optimum potential use or ability” and we can say that a person is physically mature when all physical functions are fully operational.
This helps us with the definition of mental maturity, since it is restricted to potential. Consider this example: a person who is physically mature has the potential to procreate, but they do not have to procreate to be physically mature. The potential is all that matters.
Similarly, someone who is mentally mature has the potential to make helpful decisions. That does not mean he will. In both cases, the person may choose how fully to take advantage of the state of mature capabilities.
Maturity is not the same as wisdom
Having obtained a state of maturity is not the same as having experience or wisdom. It is mental maturity that makes it possible to learn from experience or handle mistakes. Hopefully, this will in turn result in increasing wisdom. Mental maturity is the potential to problem solve.
A little observation will remind us that maturity cannot be dependent on having all the necessary information to make a decision. Not only are we all always learning as individuals, but what is accepted as general knowledge is very subject to change. Think about adventurous people have frequently been labeled immature, but over time their adventures lead to discoveries that we all benefit from.
Responsibility whether you want it or not
The counter point to having the potential to make a useful decision is having the potential to bear the responsibility for it. Here we must differentiate between legal restrictions on bearing responsibility and mental potential to bear responsibility. It also doesn’t matter whether or not a person reacts to the responsibility poorly or chooses to act childlike. The fact remains that there is a point where a person can bear responsibility. Most adults recognize this and don’t want to bear other people’s responsibility.
Fortunately, physical maturity closely coincides with mental maturity. This combination gives a newly mature person