Immature Men Can't Handle 9 Pretty Basic Life Skills Most Women Master In Their Teens
Inside Creative House / Shutterstock Part of growing up is learning a variety of basic skills that make life easier to navigate. While most of these are developed over time, women typically master them at a young age, while immature men may never be able to figure them out.
Women are often encouraged, or even forced, to take on far too many responsibilities when we're young. Because of this, we often develop practical and interpersonal skills much earlier than our male counterparts. A willingness to learn and accept responsibility is essential in life, and when these skills are lacking, the burden frequently falls on women to pick up the slack. As a result, many women end up mastering basic life skills during their teen years that some immature men continue to struggle with well into adulthood.
Here are 9 basic life skills that most women master in their teens that immature men can't handle
1. Expressing their emotions in a healthy way
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Due to societal norms and expectations placed on men, many young boys are still brought up not knowing how to express their emotions in a healthy way. Most of the time, men express emotions only when they are deemed masculine by society. Emotions such as anger or defensiveness are typically associated with men, while feminine emotions such as crying or showing empathy are usually associated with women.
Immature men avoid these expressions of emotion, even if they're normal, because of the ways we believe men and women should behave. During our teen years, women learn to express a broad range of emotions, and we are given the support to do so.
Despite being at a disadvantage, mature men know there are many ways to appropriately express and control their emotions as they grow older, but many immature men remain stuck in their old habits, unwilling to change.
2. Accepting rejection gracefully
As the youngest girl in my family, you would think I would be used to hearing only yes from my parents, but it's actually the opposite. As I grew into a teenager, the number of nos I heard steadily increased in all areas of my life. I eventually learned to stop getting hurt and simply take no for an answer.
For immature men, however, hearing no hits harder. They often take rejection personally and respond with resentment, blame, or hostility. Mature adults understand that rejection is a normal part of life. Learning to accept disappointment without lashing out is an important sign of emotional maturity, a skill that most women master before they even reach the end of puberty.
3. Sharing household responsibilities
For as long as I can remember, my sister and I took on most, if not all, of the household chores and responsibilities our mom assigned us. As a child and into my early teen years, I noticed that my older brother never contributed nearly as much as the girls did.
Now that I'm in my early 20s, I realize that immature men often view cleaning, cooking, or organizing as someone else's job, creating unequal dynamics early on because they know that, no matter what, these tasks will be completed. A mature, functioning adult should be able to contribute to the upkeep of their living space without being asked.
4. Finding and preparing basic meals
Knowing how to feed yourself is one of the most fundamental life skills, but many immature men rely on other people or takeout because they never learned basic competence in the kitchen.
As a teen, if there were no plans for lunch or dinner, I had no choice but to cook for myself if I wanted to eat. If dinner was planned, it was typically my mother and I preparing and cooking meals for the entire house. As women, many of us learned simple cooking skills during adolescence, skills that many immature men continue to avoid as adults.
5. Managing their own appointments and schedules
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From doctor's visits to car maintenance, adult life requires staying on top of important commitments. As a teenager, I was heavily encouraged to take on these responsibilities because it would only help me in the long run. Despite any anxiety I may have felt making those calls or keeping track of obligations, I was mature enough to do it all on my own.
Immature men, however, often depend on others to remind them about important responsibilities. I can recall many moments when women in my life, myself included, had to remind men of their commitments because they weren't mature enough to do it themselves. Before women have the chance to enter adulthood, they learn the importance of managing their own responsibilities and take on the burden of doing so for immature men as well.
6. Apologizing when they're wrong
Immature men will often struggle with admitting and apologizing when they're wrong because they view it as a personal failure rather than a learning opportunity. They also might view it as a hit to their pride. No one likes being wrong, but not acknowledging it is just immature.
Many women learn during their teens that taking responsibility for their actions is a key part of character development. When I was a teenager, admitting I was wrong and apologizing to someone felt refreshing. It felt good to know that I was mature enough to take accountability and that this trait and skill would stay with me and positively impact the person I would become in the future.
7. Communicating during conflicts
I'm sure being in a house with two teenage sisters close in age was, at times, annoying for my family. Growing up, my sister and I would get into the most ridiculous arguments over literally anything. However absurd they may have been, we were never afraid to communicate with each other during times of conflict. I can argue that it actually allowed us to express our feelings about a situation more clearly, and to be more understanding of how the other felt.
This is an important life skill that my sister and I, and I'm sure so many other women, learned during our teen years. Yet immature men shut down or escalate conflict instead of engaging in productive conversation. While disagreements are inevitable, how a person approaches and handles them makes all the difference. Immature men often struggle to handle this basic life skill because it requires a level of emotional vulnerability and maturity they simply do not possess.
8. Asking for help when they need it
Men tend to prioritize how others perceive their capabilities so they can be seen as self-sufficient, a perception often associated with manliness. For immature men, asking for help, even when they know they need it, is out of the question because they don't want people to question their competence.
Back in my teenage years, I wasn't always comfortable asking for help because, in a weird way, it made me feel like I wasn't good or smart enough. But when I realized that leaning on a support system made me feel more confident to push forward, I became more inclined to ask for help when I needed it. Women learn from an early age that asking for help isn't a sign of weakness or ignorance but of maturity. Immature men often hold their pride to a higher standard than their desire to learn and grow.
9. Taking responsibility for their own growth
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Perhaps the biggest difference between maturity and immaturity is the willingness to improve. Women typically spend their teenage years adapting to social expectations and challenges, so we tend to learn much earlier than men that growth begins with taking ownership of our lives.
Immature men are quick to blame their circumstances, parents, partners, friends, society, or anything, really, for their shortcomings before looking inwards. They refuse to take any sort of accountability for why they are not growing in their lives. Being able to take responsibility for our own growth is a valuable life skill because it teaches us to be more self-reflective. Immature men will deliberately hold themselves back because it's easier for their ego to remain indifferent to improvement.
Yessenia Munoz is a writer pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and writes about lifestyle topics.
