Autism - childlike but not childish?

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We would only act adult when we experienced outside pressure to do so, and concluded no other choice.

The outside pressure is almost always there, and it has never felt right to me.
It's the aggressive hive-mind trying to invade, control, and contaminate me.

As you note, many NT adults do ignore the childlike part of themselves for social conformity reasons. Thus an interesting phenomenon happens with a lot of parents of toddlers and young children. Taking your 3 year old to the playground acts as "permission" to play on the playground equipment yourself and do lots of other fun things regarded as just being for children under the guise of bonding with your child. Many (but o course not all) parents of young children confide to each other that they are so glad their young child likes the playground/carnival/water park/zoo/kids movie etc. because it gives them an excuse to do it as an adult without being perceived as weird.

The childlike part is buried in so many NT adults but it sometimes emerges when given permission by society.

I am 31 and built a pillow / blanket fort for myself... does this answer your question?

childlike but not childish?

This is not a distinction that most NTs would make.

I see "childish" as comprising components of selfishness, petulance, and impatience.

I see "child-like" as comprising elements of wonder, exuberance, and entrancement.

I see Aspies as less inhibited by fear of what others might think.

I'm doing this again. But it's hard to explain it's like there is this harshness to things deemed "adult," a certain ugliness to it. Something that I just don't want anything to do with. It seems to me aggression, arrogance and dominance are behind a lot of "growing up."
I'm aware of these things, but at the same time, I'm choosing to be innocent of bringing that into my world.

I seem to have the curiously blended internal landscape of a five year old in some respects and a five hundred year old sage in other areas, I have spent many years working on my flaws and weaker territory so it has smoothed out toward wisdom and chill in how I react and have developed my thought processes and direction from where I used to be but I have accepted with certain things I am always gonna be stuck in kid land, I don't mind it too much as I've done all I can to control what is in my hands so to speak and everyone has their character and brain terrain.


I do lend reinforcement to the belief that childlike qualities are admirable when they revolve around the glow of entrancement and feverish enthusiasm and useful innocence. I would never like to lose that luminous skin that I always basked within.

It probably depends on the person but I see what you mean. I am childlike in some of my own little ways. I'm generally quiet in real life. Some things don't come naturally in the moment and I am very curious and get obsessed with things. People can be childlike and mature though. There are some things I feel you can't be too old for like cartoons and other things like that. Everyone is probably childlike in their own ways, even if they do a good job of hiding it. I don't do a good job though. Some people can have a certain innocence to them but not be socially inappropriate. That is just my case though. Yeah, like the leave situation there are things I think of doing that are childish but would never actually do so I keep it in my head. I get very interested in animals and nature outside that other people may just walk by and ignore.

My personality and traits don't conform to standard age programs. Some of my traits and preferances are associated with younger ages. Other traits are associated with a higher level of maturity than is standand for my age and more in line with someone much older.

I know there are times where I want to go swing on a swing set (normally when I feel really stressed) or just play pretend, etc. I have stuffed animals I still sleep with ( I don't like sleeping along and can pretend it's my girlfriend) and every now and again, I'll crawl up the stairs on all fours and make "werewolf" faces in the mirror.

I'm very mature for my age, but people often mistake me as young fore my appearance often is associated with children, though I myself don't care what people think of me. I think this helps me stand out, though I stand out either way.

I am both childish and child-like. Meow!

They say you can only do things from certain age and I often could do them long before. And that the brain physically changes as you mature. I probably was quite independent and reliable as a kid, mature in that way. I am the same now, but I still have the childlike features I did then. So then I was older for my age and now I am young for my age. Nothing changed, just how I was "supposed to be". I wonder if you could have scanned my brain as I grew up, you could actually see fewer physical changes compared to a "normal person"... I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.