Is a teenager a child?

yes you are two sensitive, a child is a child until an adult, a teen is a child, but has developed further and is just in between. or another way of putting it is a teen is a stage in a child life, adults have stages too, young adults, middle aged, and elderly

I think society ages kids to fast these days. I think society today is so busy trying to make kids grow up faster these days that they are hardly a "kid" at all...they go from toddler to kid to adult and they are only 14! When MY Gd started kindergarten, yes Kindergartin... they sent out a paper saying "your child has t know these things..." and one of them were computers skills that basically at 5 she had to be computer literate. She couldn't even write her name.. but she knew her way around a key board. Even toys are more "older" in age stipulation. There's no silly cartoons, only 13 year old girls dressed in such bling that they look about 21 - i.e. Hanna MOntana among others and the dress for young girls today - again... at age 7 they are dressed in skimpy little things... they have nothing to show, but once older when they do.. they are trained to wear that skimpy little stuff. What happened to wanting to liking Care Bears and Tinkerbell and other little kid characters? I htink it is more structured to hit the girls than boys tho..A boy dresing or liking things belonging to a chartoon character or icon, gets laughed at... always has been like that but a little girl "enhanced" with My LIttle Pony stuff.. is "just to cute!" I think it is also just in how the word is used.. my two kids are police officers and parents of their own children.. but I still refer to them as my "kids" even use the word "baby" when I speak to them... that's the mother in me talking, yes, but the same words.

Well, sometimes I think of them as "kids" or "children", but I don't think of them as "little kids". I have two teens now 13 and 16. I often refer to them as my "kids" or children. I don't think it'd demeaning to them, but I understand why you're asking the question. They are one their way away from childhood and working toward adulthood, but they aren't there yet.

This is a tough question. They're not children but they're also not grown-up. After I read it, I had to think about how I refer to 13-17 year olds. I think I'm guilty of calling them children (or kids) but I think it really depends on the situation. If I'm talking to a friend about her kids, I will say son, daughter, child, children, kid or kids -- I sometimes call them young adults or teens but it doesn't roll off the tongue as easily. Our kids are 26 and 29 and people still call them children or kids when they ask about them. I think I'm going to pay attention to the 13-17 year old group and see how I refer to them on a regular basis, then I'll come back with a more enlightened response ( I hope )

I am 32, and my mum still calls me a child as well. I have passed the sensitive period and finally accept it. Call me a child is because she thinks I am as pure as a child and of course she thinks I don't know many things in the real world. No matter whether I am that pure or innocent, it is just her thought that I am a child and should be protected by her. After I found out why she treated me like a child, I am thankful of how she wants to protect me all her life. I was sensitive too when I was in high school, I would like to be treated like an adult, I thought I was not a child anymore. But life is so short, our childhood is even shorter. So enjoy the moment others will call you a child, it is the moment that we should treasure. In the real world, after you was out of school and is in employment, no one will treat you as a child.

no your not! im 16 and my parents treat me like im 6! then everyone wants to use the excuse 'oh your too young your just a child!' im all like CHILD?! i mean im 16 and look 18! do i look like a child to you? but no your not crazy! at all! and yes it does demean all teens. there are 5 stages of life. baby child teen adult elderly people need to see people for the age they really are and not degrade us with names we dont belong under.

I think there’re two aspects to this. One, of course you are right and I myself could never really digest the word ‘child’ when I was going thru that particular age bracket…that one word was enough to transform me from a perfectly sane docile polite teenager to a raving and ranting and rebel-without-a-cause banshee screaming at the top of her lungs! The second aspect however, is that there are people who like to address everybody quite younger to them as ‘child’. They would use it to describe an entire gamut from actual children to teenagers to young adults, too. They are usually the protective and imposing types who never understand that the child has actually grown or should be allowed to grow up on its own.

I don't think that you are being too sensitive at all. I agree with you completely. My mother used the excuse that when I am her age, I'll see them as "little" too. HA! I'm 27, married to a much older man (63), and he doesn't even see teens as children. Sure teens are "minors" in that they can not drink or vote, but they are not CHILDREN. Teens are teens, and that's what we call them.

I think that the reason we have the word teen is so that we have something else to call the people who are not children but not yet adults. It kind of irks me too when I hear people call 16 and 17 year olds children. Unless of course it's "my children" or something along those lines.

I agree. In my opinion, childhood ends by the 9th birthday. At that time a person has learned almost all of the unique things that they ever will...language, right and wrong, the personality is set. After that, it's a matter of gaining experience and honing the skills that they already have. Teenagehood is a matter of "experimenting" with knowledge that they already have. A teenager gains experience to understand everything that they have learned so far. It is a time to make mistakes that are unacceptable in "adults".

Childhood is a state of mind. It shouldn't really be an age. Though, I suppose regarding things like movie tickets...if people are going to call a teen a child, that teen should inadvertantly only have to pay for a childs ticket. I think you are being a little sensitive, but you have the right to be if you feel that way. I don't think its that big of a deal. If you're mature, then whatever group society puts you in...it doesn't matter. Heck, some adults are like big babies and some kids seemingly do more mature things then said adults. It all varies substantially.

In my part, I think what they called 'child' is not its literal meaning, that age from 12 and below. The range of teens are those of age end with the root word -teen. Technically, it is from 13-19. They called them 'child' because their parents want them to be treat like a child itself, their parents or whoever older than them knows well in this journey. Bottomline, they just want the best for their teenagers. Thank you.

I totally agree with you on this one. You are exactly right. I think that any child over 12 is not considered a child anymore and the dichotomy between real children and teenagers is too large. I think that you are not being too sensitive, teens are much more mature and at 18, kids are considered adults. A six year old is much less mature than say a 17 year old is and even a 14 year old is showing signs of become a man or a women. All in all, I think that the separation and the distinction between the two groups is too broad to call both of them children.

I don't think calling anyone from 13-17 as a teen is a way to demean them. Classifying a person as a child, teenager or an adult depends both on the physical age and mental maturity of a person. So if a person of age group 13-17 is not mature enough and acts in a childish way there is no harm in calling them as child. On the other hand you see a lot of British teenagers getting pregnant ...... well for them I think they are quite grown up to be called a child.

There is a huge difference between a 6 year old and a 15 year old.What do you think.? HAHA not always!! I have a neice who is almost an adult (18 this yr) and the way she behaves, the choices she makes, general attitude she has is more like she's a 7 or 8 yr old..She's very childish and immature...BUT that said, I get your point.. My feeling is this, it all depends on the individual...My kids are (almost)14 and 15 1/2 and both of them are mature and wise beyond their age group...BUT they had to grow up REALLY fast starting very young.....Regardless of their actual age, they will ALWAYS be my children, my babies...BUT I dont treat them as children...i treat them according to their mentality which is very adult like... All that said, a label is just a label....calling a teen a child is just the way it is and really its such old hat trying to get ppl to change it now would be just nuts..

It depends on how the "target" of the comment is acting. I like the Hobbit community J.R.R. Tolkien devised in the Lord of the Rings - no one is really considered "responsible" until the age of 30. And then again I have seen some 40-year-olds who need a pacifier, and "children" I suspect could hold a responsible job if the law would let them. There have been incidents in my life where some "adult" would start ranting at me when I was a teenager when I didn't do anything wrong. Now that I'm over 50, I can see how an adult might group all young people as inconsiderate sociopaths (and sometimes violent criminals) - but these kinds of incidents I experienced were committed by a small group of misfits. Young people are all around us, it is the most loudest, violent group that gets everyone's attention. It takes me a while when something happens to get my mind to see the real reality, that the problem children are in the minority, no matter what age they are. Or no matter how many sensational media stories of children shooting classmates in their schools.

There is a huge difference....and I do think that a teen deserves a little more respectful title.....but some kids at 12 are more mature then those at 17.....so it's a toss up....but young adult seems to be a more proper title!