Feeling like a child

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Good question. I guess feeling like an adult (compared to feeling like a child) means not wanting to play children's games and with children's toys much, but preferring the adult kind of toys and games, and taking on more self-control and responsibility instead of being controlled by adults while trying to do what one likes. Also maybe taking on adult social rules, such as seeing the opposite sex as something to flirt with or get married to instead of just as possible playmates or (for a while before puberty) people to be shunned. It's feeling more like the White Rabbit, the Queen or King of Hearts, or the Walrus etc. instead of like Alice or Tweedledum / Tweedledee.

But I've never really tried to describe it before, so that's just my quick stab at an answer.

It could have to do with autism being a developmental disability. Someone can be chronologically one age, but physically, intellectually, emotionally or socially a different age.

Can't we just continue to like things that we liked as a kid & also incorporate new things as we age? I don't consider anything age-related, except for things that have the label "For Ages 9 - 12" or something similar printed on it or on the description (like books & toys). I can still enjoy them as an adult, but don't think I feel as any age -- just feel like me when I'm enjoying something of interest. Enjoyment of Legos & computer programming & mechanisms of evolution doesn't register to me as being of any particular age.

I don't understand how someone can be so specific to say they feel like they are 12 or 9, because I've never labeled a feeling as "age". We pass through ages, but are we also supposed to feel them? Did I fail to take notice of something that I was supposed to?

I'm 34 y/o male, never married, software developer. I'm like a typical guy (and like typical guy things) except in a childish manner (if that makes sense). Or in other words... imagine a person that very much likes guy things (trucks, guns, bacon, video games, etc.) but has a childish demeanor (but it very emotionally mature). I look just like a normal guy but when people get to know me that see how off-beat I am.

So socially, I'm like a typical guy except childish, which makes me very weird. I think most unusual people are more antisocial or "know their boundaries"). For some reason I just don't really care that people think I'm weird (and usually they don't care either).

I still have the mentality of a kid in many respects. I can be an adult if I try, but I'd rather just be myself.

Actually, i've found a better way to describe it for myself... I feel like a child with lots of money (I'm simply a software developer with no kids so...) that likes manly activities and interests. I'm very emotionally mature, but intellectually immature (in that my abstract/critical thinking is impaired). Also, I have monoprocessing so it's impossible for me to be looking at something and listening at the same time, which means eye contact is impossible for me (well, I can keep eye contact, but my brain won't process anything they're saying if I do). Also, from k-12 in school I never was able to follow what the teacher did on the board. I learned absolutely everything on my own through the textbooks (although sometimes I would personally go up and ask the teacher to clarify things)... this sometimes caused problems if the teacher called on me because I would have no idea what she was just doing in the lecture (but sometimes people nearby me would whisper me the answer ).

In my case, it's never about how people perceive and treat me. Whether people mistook me for a child simply because of my demeanor and face, or spot on my real age.
It's also nothing to do with how I act and think, what I prefer or perceive. So what if I joke around or took things too seriously, whether for the right or wrong time or reasons.
It also matters a little what responsibilities I fulfilled, or merits I earned from others. Whether people are proud of me in the most patronizing ways, or that they respect me and held high of me. Or that they thought I'm dependable, or that people wouldn't dare trust me.


Something else refused to change... And that is that 'feeling'. Despite my experiences, despite my knowledge, despite what trials I passed, despite what situation I've been into, despite the things I witnessed.
Then there are so many things I still couldn't appreciate or understand, let alone truly experience, yet my peers and plenty of others that are younger than me could.
... Not that I mind.

I feel like a child and I physically look like one. My personality has not changed much and some aspects have not grown up. For example, I still like Lego and have collected a few sets.
As a child, I was quite different from other children because I liked to be alone a lot. It could be that I prefer objects to people. I don't like noisy places either, so places where there are a lot of noisy people or noise, I don't go.
The way I view the world is sober. I don't drink, don't smoke, don't go clubbing. I even refused to go to new year party at work. I just don't find these activities interesting.
There are also things in this world that I cannot understand. I have never wanted to be in any relationship. I never think about married life despite the pressure from my community. I distance myself from most men, particularly those who seem interested in things I don't offer. Men whom I allow to remain close to me are those who cannot marry me (and who treat me like their child). I am close to my dad.
Anyway, I won't be able to have children. I am going for a total hysterectomy next week to end my pain and suffering. In fact, I have waited for this surgery for two decades! At last, there is a serious condition that requires it.

Yes we can, though some people might want to give us a hard time for it. As long as we can operate adult skills when it's necessary, I think the ability to retain our child-selves is a good thing. I will rant more about that below.

Sure, nobody literally feels 12 or 9 like that. Maybe the topic title would be easier to understand as "acting like a child" or "having the same nature as a child."

WARNING: VERBOSE MATERIAL BELOW

Personally I think it's good for adults to be as childlike as they want, as long as self-control failure doesn't make them dangerous to self or others. Of course it's important not to take it too far, the responsible adult side is important too, or we'd all be waiting to be fed and there'd be nobody left to feed us. Society might find some kinds of childlike behaviour a little odd, but these days a lot of people don't mind, and some of them even find it rather cute. Childlike women might be better accepted than childlike men, though it depends on the local culture. I think it can sometimes give a problem in ordinary heterosexual relationships - the guy might think the girl's childlike nature means that she's OK with him acting like a parent to her to the extent of dominating her, which I guess is OK if the girl likes it that way and doesn't want an equal say in the decision-making, but if not then things could turn nasty.

I don't feel much different to the way I did when I was a young child, except for having more physical aches and pains. My interests have gradually become more complicated as my brain developed, generally I'd find jokes aimed at adults funnier than jokes aimed at small children, though there are exceptions. I went through the usual puberty thing so the way I saw girls and women changed, in some ways I kind of regret that.

One ex-girlfriend used to get annoyed with me for pointing to every teddy bear I saw in the shops, but my partner these days says one reason she loves me is that I keep making up cute little stories about our cats. One of the fun things about relationships is that couples often seem to go back to a childlike level, at least some of the time. It's a nice kind of intimacy and I feel sorry for any couple who don't ever do that.

Those Alice adult characters really weren't very sound people, IMO Lewis Carroll made them that way to show his empathy with children, they must have themselves understood the absurdity of adults who tried to be too "grown-up" with that sanctimonious, bossy attitude they adopted whenever they dealt with children. I doubt anybody in their right mind would want to be the anxious, duty-ridden White Rabbit, the jumped-up Queen of Hearts, her long-suffering husband, or the obnoxious adults on the train:

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/carroll/egan1.html

So for me, feeling too much like an adult would mean not being able to write a story that children would enjoy, and I'm very glad to see that a lot of authors get it right, because it means they've not lost the child part of themselves, they have empathy with children.

I feel like I am about 10. I start to not be able to relate when people are like 15 and up.

I can relate as well. I'm 29 and still feel like a teenager, though I start feeling a bit old as well (motivation to do stuff is not as strong).

I can very much relate though I think this may be more circumstantial than neurological, as as I am now 28 and haven't really been part of society since my late teens, having no friends or employment makes it very difficult to relate to people of my own age who I very rarely speak to and when I do they are a relative and we only talk about tv and films.

I still watch childish tv shows..my current favorite is paw patrol

I also have a paci and stuffie collection as well as a slew of other childish toys/items

I have an identity disturbance and so my identity is basically structured from the people I am around, the things I like, and most often, what I look like that day. So if people treat me like a child, and I'm looking a bit younger that day I will generally feel like a one, I mean I can almost feel my ego distorting from one person to another, but it's not like DID or anything that severe.

Perhaps your the same?

My emotional state is certainly that of a child and I feel like a child most of the time anyways. For a guy in his forties I do still do quite a bit of crying and sometimes outright balling. Before my Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis I was worried about this but nowadays I have come to accept it as being part of the many traits ASDers have.

If I had the money I'd be playing with Lego, I play video games, I take childish delight in a great many things, I have a childish enthusiasm about a great many things and I have no concept of danger sometimes.

The fact that I'm incontinent and I need to wear diapers all the time only reinforces this whole persona. This childlike mind is apparently a very intregal part of being an Aspie and who I am. So I have accepted it. Aspie Children unite!