LET’S STOP SEEING AGE 18 AS THE PARENTING FINISH LINE, MMM K?
When I was an eighteen-year-old college freshmen, during spring break my friends and I (all females) hitchhiked from a grimy bar in Matamoros, Mexico across the US border in a stranger’s van at 2AM in the morning.
Why??? Because we were eighteen and livin’ the dream! (Translation: we were being naive, risky and incredibly stupid in a drug-cartel-ridden city best known for kidnapping and murder.) And apparently this was our version of “problem solving” when after a few hours of karaoke and dancing around the dirt floor of a bar with some charming locals, we discovered that we were stranded on the wrong side of the border—with no money and no means of transportation back to our hotel in South Padre Island, Texas.
We were also VERY lucky as the driver of the creepy white van who picked us up along a dark road on the outskirts of town must have been a patron saint of foolish college coeds disguised as a nice young man from Texas. He safely drove us home without incident. Disaster averted. (Thank you, God! Seriously, you sent us an angel that night, didn’t you?)
Needless to say, this less-than wise decision was just one example that proved I hadn’t mastered “adulting” at eighteen-years-old. (I still haven’t really mastered adulting, but at least I’m self-aware of it and certainly not hitching rides in stranger’s vans in Mexico.)
Now, as the mom of an eighteen-year-old son heading off to college in a few months, I can’t help but cringe when I hear people say they’re looking forward to parenting being “done” when their kids turn eighteen and leave the nest.
Frankly, it’s just hogwash.
Some things change when kids turn eighteen, but not everything
The idea that kids reach adult maturity at age eighteen has been around a long time. It’s so ingrained in our culture that we’ve established significant legal milestones on the 18th birthday. For instance, when my son turned eighteen:
- I lost all access to his medical records and information
- He can vote (yikes!)
- He can enlist in the military and go fight in a war.
- He can go to “big boy” prison (with serial killers and drug cartels) if he commits a crime.
- He can get his own credit cards—and wreck his credit score for a decade.
- I won’t even be able to attend his course planning sessions at college orientation (a painful fact I learned while ugly-crying on the other side of the adviser’s door at his older sister’s college orientation)
Because of my legal guardianship abruptly ending when my son turns eighteen, it’s easy to feel like the world is has declared that my parenting job has officially ended—like I’ve completed the course and crossed the finish line of the final exam.
Dear imaginary parenting exam proctor: I’m NOT finished yet! Your nerve-wracking call for “Pencils down, hands up” is bogus!
I have two bones of contention to pick with you, and here’s what they are:
- First, an eighteen-year-old’s brain is still developing. (Please continuing reading for the real science behind this!)
- Secondly, I’M NOT DONE YET, and I don’t appreciate being told “Parenting is over—here’s your final grade on this project!” (We’ll get to that in a minute.)
News Alert: Brain science agrees with me!
The idea that my eighteen-year-old son has reached adult maturity is plainly ridiculous. Have you met him? He’s a smart, wonderful kid, and I’m so proud of him, but he appears consistently incapable of thinking beyond his own needs. (Especially about anything occurring beyond tomorrow.)
I’ve tried my best to teach him all of the important life skills, but there are so many, and there hasn’t been enough time for him to practice! He’s still overwhelmed at the thought of scheduling a series of physical therapy appointments on his own—let alone battle with health insurance claims. His mastery of cooking stops at pancakes. He always mixes his light and dark laundry and doesn’t read garment labels (yup, he was the varsity baseball pitcher in the pink pants!) He gets ridiculously grumpy about “having” to hand-write thank you notes. He leaves a massive trail of dirty socks, fast food cups, athletic cups, and other various sports equipment all over the house. He drives too fast and can’t parallel park without running over my petunias. And he has something that smells like rotting meat in his bedroom and he. Doesn’t. Even. Care.
So…he’s still exactly what most normal teenagers are like—and nothing magical happened on his 18th birthday that turned him into a fully functioning adult.
Also, I remember what I was like at eighteen and clearly “mature” isn’t the word I’d use to describe myself.
And fortunately it’s not just some maturity deficit that runs in our family, because recent brain science confirms: a teenager’s brain is NOT fully developed at eighteen-years-old.
>>Related: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Teenage Brains
This brain research is actually really interesting (and relieving for parents!). People used to believe that kids’ brains were 95% developed by age six (as if!). And since puberty has fully occurred by age eighteen, kids were considered adults at that point.
But thanks to MRI technology and advances in neuroscience in the last decade, we have a much clearer picture of the structure and functioning that occurs inside a teenager’s brain. It’s now believed that their brains are only at 80% of full maturity by age eighteen, and often aren’t done completing the full synapse connections until the age of 25-30.
So basically my teenage son’s brain is like a pan of under-cooked brownies: firm around the perimeter but still squishy in the center.
And that under-cooked part? It’s solely located in the prefrontal cortex—the very important part of the brain that controls the exact behaviors that cause parents to face-palm on a daily basis! This is the part of the brain that controls impulses, risk-taking behavior, emotional reactions, moderates social behaviors, decision-making, long-range planning, understanding future consequences of current behavior…maturity.
Yes, that’s right! Eighteen-year-old’s are not finished cookin’! They might look like they’re fully ready from the outside, but stick a fork in ’em and you’ve got a hot mess with no structure.
In other words, STILL SQUISHY.
As long as his gooey brownie center is still cooking (and even after that), I’m going to remain an important guiding influence in his life. (And since I love brownies—and my son, I’ll not ever relinquish my title as his mother!)
Please don’t grade my parenting
Which brings me to my second point (Dear self—listen up!): I don’t appreciate my parenting being judged based on how my kid has “turned out” at age eighteen. In fact, I don’t appreciate it being judged, period.
The love I have for my kids, and the energy I’ve invested into their hearts, bodies, and minds, isn’t the kind of thing that can be graded.
Feeling like I’m “getting a grade” once they reach this mystical milestone of eighteen-years-old is living under the law, and Jesus sets us free from the law. ALWAYS. I’m NOT graded by anything, and especially not by how my kids are going to “turn out. ”
Yes, I have a responsibility to raise them well. Yes, I need to pay attention to appropriate developmental milestones throughout their life in case something needs some extra intervention. Yes, I can take pride in their accomplishments. And yes, I’ll grieve their failures with them.
But my value and my kids’ value isn’t measured by the “results” of my parenting. It’s measured exclusively by Jesus.
Jesus offers grace, not a grade.
Fellow parents, unite with me against these imaginary notions that age-based milestones define who are kids are, and who we are as parents. When we hear the false command, “Pencils down, hands up,” let’s ignore it, mmm k?
Instead, let’s let go of the pressure we’re feeling to produce super-human adults by the age of eighteen and instead simply savor our kids exactly as they are in this squishy-messy season.
Let’s not feel like we have to rush them into adulthood, nor hold them back from it.
Let’s encourage them to venture out into the world (but maybe avoid Matamoros) and gain their independence, remembering that their inevitable stumbles and screw-ups will be an important part of their maturing process.
Let’s stop feeling the guilt of “parenting fail” when our kids make poor or immature choices and instead find relief in trusting that God’s plan is still in place. (Remember—our kids see the next few months of their lives, parents see the next few years of their lives…but only God knows the whole path of their life journey.)
And let’s look beyond their achievements or failures as defined by the world, and take the time to see them through the eyes of Jesus.
May we breathe a deep sigh of relief and remember that no matter what, Jesus loves them unconditionally, and he’s not tracking their score or yours.
Age eighteen is not the finish line—for them, or for their parents.
Truth? There is no finish line.
Written by Kami Gilmour, co-host of They Say podcast, wife and the mom of 5 teen and young adult kids. She’s also the co-creator of SoulFeed college care packages, designed to help keep parents and college kids connected to what matters most.Sent from my iPhone
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