This should be a class in high school, part of the “Life Skills” series that should begin in grade 9. How many parents have the instinct to say “give your head a shake” to their teen-to-young-adult children? Or want to (and some do) slap their kid “up the side of the head” to try and knock some sense into them. If only it were that easy. And I don’t condone slapping your kids. Its especially not wise when they are young adults, because they just might slap you back.
Young people are more impulsive because they don’t weigh risks and consequences the same way adults do, says Dr. Carl Fleisher, an expert in adolescent and child psychiatry, in an article on UCLA Health. Their judgment and decision-making abilities are underdeveloped because the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s executive control center — is not fully developed until the mid-20s, Fleisher says.
“He lost his son to suicide after a ‘sextortion’ scam. Now this lawmaker is fighting to save other teens“, By Faith Karimi, CNN, published 3:06 AM EDT, Sat May 13, 2023.
There is a reason however to this age group have under developed front cortexes, after all, who in their right might would run into military battle other than young adults. Consider what military battle meant 1000 years ago…. Vikings? 2000 years ago … biblical? 10000 years ago … when the life expectancy was 40.
This year, like every year, Canada and the USA debate whether we should do away with Daylight Savings Time. Its antiquated – for the farmers of old. Its just not applicable to 21st century living. Too bad we couldn’t just make a global decision about the maturity of the frontal cortex, or FC as I’m going to refer to it. Let’s decide that its full development in the mid-20s is antiquated, not applicable anymore to 21st century culture. In fact, its detrimental to the well being of teens and young adults. Its killing them!!
When I was a teenager I was smarter than my parents who had no idea how to live in the 1970s. They didn’t trust me to make my own decisions when I had more education than they did. And my FC indeed did not start to come around until my early 20s when I put myself back into the educational system. I must have had a universal guardian energy to keep my safe during those years.
My daughter went through the same thing. From high school until her mid-20s, she was a different person. Some people casually threw around the idea that if I had gone through those difficult years, it only made sense that she would too. In my mind, that could not happen if I had never discussed those years with her. My parents talked about they lack of education all time, mostly because I truly believe (especially my mother) they had imposter syndrome.
I made a point of never mentioning my past to my daughter because I didn’t want her getting any ideas. It is only now that I realize that it is genetic – a slow “ripening” of the FC.
My grandparents needed that underdeveloped brain to pioneer their way into Canada, living through what now would be considered, impossible conditions. What fully developed FC person would have one baby per year, beginning at age 18 and have a full brood by age 30? Likely the reason that by the time the FC developed, the woman were dead and the husband needed to married someone with an underdeveloped FC so they would make the insane decision to marry and old man and look after all his children!