What’s Your Child’s Spiritual Age?

I love being 35, because at 35 I get to be a much more free version of a 17 year old lighting incense, blasting Fiona Apple while applying eyeliner, and caring too much about everything. I spend a non-zero amount of time staring out the window at my crush doing kick flips, who is incidentally my husband. I’m still a theater kid smoking weed and making out in the woods, except now I can buy it legally at a fancy store, the person I’m making out with knows what they’re doing, and the woods come with a cute cabin Airbnb.

My 6 y/o is, and has always been, a very serious but enthusiastic grad student (so, 27?) who cares a lot about observation, data collection and Findings. He’ll pepper you with questions in a distinct broad-to-granular order, and when he has enough information to decide how to feel about something, the Project has committee approval, and it’s time for Relentless Implementation.

My toddler is a 20 y/o summer camp counselor on her gap year, and after she Leads! You! All! In! A! Clapping! Campfire! Song! through sheer aggressive cheerfulness, she will backpack across the whole world without hesitation, and learn about gravity by bungee jumping off of a bridge, and no other way. She inspires and terrifies us all.

I don’t have kids but my 37 year old husband is definitely a 14/15 year old spiritually. This is because he is really into toys and model cars. I would say he was younger but he puts a lot of thought in the toys he buys the kids in our circle, usually the girls too will get these trucks with different settings and super cool features etc. Browsing the toy section and even online is his favourite thing to do. His godson loves him so much because he will buy him something and explain what ‘s cool about it. Sometimes he has just stopped himself from buying the toy for himself. I find him really intelligent and curious about this cool aspect.He kind of transforms into a child himself.

My daughter is 6 years old and her spiritual age is probably 35 years old. She has her fair share of silliness, but she is also very responsible and a worry wart. She always checks to make sure we have everything before we leave the house, she comments about the decor when we go places, and tells me “we are allowed to have different opinions”.

My spiritual age is absolutely 60 years old. I am 32 right now and I have been waiting my entire life to be 60 because I feel like I will finally be the age I’ve been meant to be my whole life. I have always gotten along better with people over 60 and I dream of fully leaning into my eccentric, older lady vibes.

Lol Toby sounds so much like a first born! Too cute!!

My mum is my favourite example of this! She is 66, but inside is about 25. If anyone is ever up for hiking up a mountain, doing something random and spontaneous or playing a random clapping game in the middle of the kitchen – it’s her.

Love this. My now 13 year-old daughter was born a 70 year-old and will always be 70 years old at heart. It’s awesome.

Wow, loving this. My inner age is 30 – as a teenager I was always longing for the exhausting parties to end and to be able to have a “sophisticated” evening with wine and cheese and not feel lame about it. Now being 37 I feel that this was the best age so far, too. Now, I am looking forward to my 50s for some reason ;-) My four year old daughter seems to be a rather nerdy teenager, she wants to dicuss everthing – knows most things better and cannot wait to go to college/ university (where the big kids go to school and the intresting stuff happens) and her irrational mood swings remind me of my teenager years.

My 8 year old son is more like a 24 year old psychology major. My 5 year old girl is more like a 32 year old SNL cast member.

So sweet. My daughter is like Anton. She’s almost 7 but asks about teenagers every day. How old do you have to be to have a crush, date, drive, go to prom?

I was born and am to this day a 72-year-old man. I want to be left alone to read, do my crossword puzzles and smoke the occasional cigar. I scream GET OFF MY LAWN in my heart every time a kid walks by and I love ittttt.

My 3.5 year-old is a 68 year-old retiree posing as a toddler. He loves to be left alone to sit in his chair and quietly read his books. He’s particular to his schedule, the exact doneness of his toast, and the occasional afternoon couch nap with a blanket over his lap. My favorite is that he enjoys a perfectly lukewarm cup of tea before bed and sweetly asks for his “night time tea” prior to bed. My 7 year-old counters this with the energy of a 17 year old eager to fly the coop and become the life of the party at college. They are both perfectly themselves and I couldn’t love them more.

My son is 2 (3 in Aug), and some days it’s pretty easy to forget he’s only 2. He always seems so much more mature and like a big kid. I’m excited to see how his personality develops as he grows and to find out what his spiritual age will end up being.

I have and have always been an old lady at heart. But not the cute gramma made cookies old lady. More the slightly disheveled, yells at cars driving too fast old lady.

Sigh. I live in India where there’s a TikTok ban. How I’d have loved to see more of Anton’s videos. This one was hilarious.

Since he was a day old–before we even brought him home from the hospital–our son (now 6 mo) has been a cool, 21-year old, frat boy. Laying under his phototherapy light with his little baby shades–he just looked so cool. He slams his bottles like a champ, giggles after belching, and announces his presence the second he enters a room by talking/yelling to no one in particular. He’s also SO sweet and cuddly and it brings me comfort to think that he’ll still great me with a tight hug every time I visit him in college one day–even if it is amongst sticky floors and the smell of stale beer.

I can’t yet fathom the spiritual age of my 2,5 year old. But is somewhere in the adult range for sure ☺️. She is very serious about her own development. Stating that she is learning to jump and then practicing diligently, or painting with utmost concentration. I recognize myself in her, and I’ve always been 40 at heart. As a toddler I would walk around with a picture book, anouncing that I was off to work. My husband on the other hand is forever an 8 year old boy, and I love him for it!

I don’t know quite what the soul age is, but I tend to find people who I have such a wink and elbow-nudge affinity with that I’m certain we came to this life knowing full well we’d be here together for all the expansion and all the laughs and learning and tears and growth. All my closest friends have this eternal quality to them. One of those friends is the 20-month-old I nanny for. We spend a lot of time together and at the end of the day, when the stories have been read and it’s cuddle time before sleep she leans against me, practically nose to nose, with this knowing glimmer in her eye like “hehehe…. here we are, my friend. I’d recognize you anywhere.”

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Oh my gosh! I love this post so much. Thank you for making me smile!

I don’t have children, but about 10 years ago, my older cousin emphatically declared my spirit age to be 36. I am now 36 and have never felt more myself than I do this year. So maybe he’s right?

I love this! It says so much about really knowing your kids as the people they are. My husband and I were joking the other night – when did we get these housemates?? They are more and more their own people…not an extension of us, their parents. My daughter’s friend has been staying over and I love how they bring out each others true selves. So fun to witness and a joy to be part of their lives.

My 2.5 year old might have the spiritual age of a 35 year old getting ready to buy a house. He is obsessed with water heaters, fans, and vacuums. He recently got a tour of a friend’s house and insisted to see those three items. I asked him what fun things he’d want to do at his grandparents’ house and he said, “dust shelves, vacuum.” Any tool or appliance wins him over!
Don’t worry, though. He is still a goofy toddler who loves to dance, read books, get messy with berries, and giggle about silly things!

My daughter is an old soul. She loves putting together puzzles, curling up on the couch with good book, and pottering around the garden. She’s always been happy hanging with adults much older than herself.

Well your description of Toby… it just makes me cry! What a sweetheart. :)

Toby looks like you SO MUCH. I don’t have kids, but I’m pretty sure my spiritual age has always been about 27.

OMG this speaks to me!! so glad i’m not alone in this experience. you would think i would be used to this having been married for 8 years and now my daughter is 19 months old, but every time i’m reminded of what little help I get when they come or when we visit them because of all of these things!.