This Is The Age You Officially Start Turning Into Your Parents, According To Survey
Whether you like it or not, everyone turns into their parents eventually.
shurkin_son | Shutterstock At some point, everyone is bound to start acting more and more like their parents. People naturally lose the carefree, wild attitudes of their youth and exchange them for something more thoughtful and reserved as they age. For most people, this means turning into a younger version of their parents.
While plenty of people try to fight this shift, there’s really not much that can be done to avoid it, short of having a full-blown mid-life crisis. Since that’s not really healthy for anyone, it’s better to just embrace the changes as they come and accept that once you get to your forties, you’ll be just like Mom and Dad.
One survey found that you officially begin to turn into your parents at 43.
Have you ever looked at a photo of yourself and done a double-take because your expression made you think you were looking at your mom? It happens to all of us at some point, and now, thanks to a new survey, we can pinpoint exactly when the transition starts.
British company M&S Credit Card ran a survey across the U.K. in an effort to uncover the age at which someone can be said to be turning into their parents. Georgia Lambert, who reported on the survey for The Times, said that magic number is 43. Women begin to show signs of turning into their parents slightly earlier than this average at 42, while men are most likely to hit their parental stride at 45.
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Becoming more like your parents isn't necessarily a bad thing.
According to ATV Today’s Liz Charlton, this is not necessarily the bad thing that some might have you believe it is. Twenty-seven percent of survey respondents claimed to find the ways that they were becoming more like their parents “amusing.” Another 58% have definitely noticed this kind of behavior from their partners, with 95% saying it gets worse as they get older.
It seems that most people believe parenting has come more naturally to them because of their own parents. 87% agreed that watching their own parents is what taught them how to be parents, and 78% realized how much they had in common with their parents after having children themselves.
Paul Stokes, the head of customer value management at M&S Credit Card, pointed out that becoming more like your parents can be a good thing, especially if it means you’re more financially responsible.
He explained, “It’s clear to see that many of us find ourselves turning into our parents as we get older, but that isn’t such a bad thing, especially if we’re following in their financially savvy footsteps.”
There are several clear indicators that you’re becoming more like your parents.
The survey also asked participants to identify the behaviors they associated with people becoming more like their parents. At 36%, the top choice was complaining about the weather, Charlton said. Falling asleep easily on the sofa ranked second at 33%. Third was choosing to dress for comfort at 31%.
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Rounding out the top five was going to bed before 10:00 p.m., and people saying you look like one of your parents, both at 27%. What Stokes said about financial savviness seemed to ring true with adhering to a budget, watching your finances, and paying close attention to energy consumption, all of which also made the top 20.
Ultimately, you are your own person, but the survey highlighted that certain traits are often passed down.
Some people don't have great parents and don’t look up to them as role models, while others want to maintain their youth as long as they can. Long Island Psychology’s Atara Wertentheil noted that all of these feelings are valid. However, it may be necessary at times to act like your parents, or not act like them. The point is: The choice is yours.
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“Still, decisions need to be made independently, irrespective of whether it is similar or different from your parents,” she said, acknowledging that most parents are not completely good or bad, and rebelling just for the sake of doing so isn’t worth it.
It’s important to remember that this survey was all in good fun, though, and saying that complaining about the weather is a sign you’re turning into your parents is hardly an indicator of whether you are seriously following in their footsteps.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
