Adultism

Oddly enough, I still experience forms of adultism as at the age of thirty-one.  People assume that because I am not married and do not have children, I don’t have adult responsibilities.  Of course, I have responsibilities as do twenty-something’s, teenagers, and children.  Granted my respoabilities may not be quite the same as a wife and mother.  I am personally responsible for my households grocery shopping, errand running, paying bills, and keeping both my mother and brother on a budget.   I am not a wife; however I am a sister and daughter who are highly depended upon to take care of household business.  My brother considers me his personal secretary; I literally take care of all of his personal business.  My mom does help with budgeting issues, but for the most part it’s my job.  I clean and do the laundry for the three of us.  The only thing I am not responsible for at home, is cooking dinner, which I do cook dinner at least once a week.  So why do people with children and spouses or domestic partners think, I have less responsibility and thus more time to do homework and other activities?  By the way, I do understand children are time consuming, but that is part of the reason I have chosen not to have children yet.  Just because some of my classmate, made the discision to have children, does not mean I should be treated less “adult” because I made a different choice.

It is not just classmates, who treat me younger because of my lack of children.  My grandmother even treats me younger than my married cousins with children.  They are eleven years younger than me, but my grandmother tends to think of them as being older than me, based on the fact I am not married and do not have children.

I have probably been guilty of treating classmates and my younger cousins with adultism views.  Like our book states, our society perpetuates the idea that teenagers and young adults are stupid and less than older adults. It is perfectly natural and accepted to compare responsibilities without consider what choices were made that caused those responsibilities.  When you make the choice to become a partner and parent, you make the choice to take on the extra responsibilities that come with it.