Children and mature adults we know about, but why is society so clueless about young people in between? | Gaby Hinsliff

While there’s much mocking of gen Z, the idea that the state should do more for those aged 18 to 25 is catching on around Westminster. About time, too

When did you realise you had finally grown up? It’s a trick question, obviously: maturity is just realising that life is full of things you don’t feel old enough for but somehow manage anyway, while getting better at pretending to know what you’re doing. But the question is worth asking nonetheless, because for gen Z the goalposts of grownup life are clearly shifting.

It’s a truism that adulting now comes later than it did to generations who still don’t consider adulting a verb, with 43% of 25-year-olds still living at home and plenty more jobless university graduates boomeranging back there this summer, thanks to a grim labour market. Since they’ll probably be working longer into what were once retirement years, perhaps it’s only natural that they’re taking longer to get started. But there’s a fine line between choosing to grow up more slowly and becoming trapped into a kind of limbo between childhood and adulthood, with nobody to pull you out of the morass beyond parents who aren’t sure how to handle this new life stage either.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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