acting one's age
Behaving suitably mature
Acting one's age means behaving in a manner considered appropriate for someone of your years, typically invoked when someone—usually a child or teenager—is being immature or silly.
The phrase almost always appears in the imperative as a mild rebuke: Act your age!
Adults occasionally receive this admonition too, particularly when behaving childishly or irresponsibly.
The underlying assumption is that maturity should increase with years, though what constitutes age-appropriate behavior varies by culture and context.
- responsibilityState of being answerable
- decorumFitting social conduct
- traditionCustom passed through generations
- rites of passageCeremonies marking major transitions
- impulse controlRegulating sudden urges
propriety · emotional regulation · authenticity · boundaries · social norms · self-concept · stereotypes · appropriateness · childishness · inner child · young at heart · old soul · customs · self-discipline · cognition · conformity · peer pressure · maturity
acting one's ageacting out
Expressing distress behaviorally
regressing · Peter Pan syndrome · arrested development · making a scene · acting the fool
acting one's agegrowing up too fast
second childhood · parentification · midlife crisis · lost youth
acting, acted, acts, action, actions, active, actor, actors, actress