“Marriage and parenthood- once seen as prerequisites for adulthood- are not viewed more as lifestyle choices, according to a new report released by Princeton University and the Brooklyn Institution. ” Cohen, P. (2010, June 11). The long road to adulthood is growing even longer. The New York Times.

It seems like there is a social or stereotypical milestone that once you have finished certain activities, you are automatically tagged with a new label. The stereotypes in our society have been trying to order, or restrict, people’s life status. For example, just like Cohen has mentioned in her article that it was supposed, people should finish education, start a family, have stable jobs before they reach to their 30s. However, as more and more women want to establish their own career, or chase personal life goals, they have decided to postpone the idea of marrying someone as well as having babies. Plus, the whole society is becoming more tolerant to a longer preparation time to enter adulthood. I personally quite agree with this trend because according to Lerner (2009), the term Adolescence only has a short history of 20 years. The social definition of this term is still developing, and maybe someday we would come up with “post-adolescent period” to describe the gap years between adolescence and adulthood.

I think it’s really difficult to give a precise definition of either “adult” or “adolescent” because our world is progressing, and our perspectives are changing accordingly. The stereotypical definition should not be the restriction for our lives.