Social clock?

[tomkkk]

"social clock," the culturally prescribed timeline for accomplishing life tasks in adulthood. The "typical" time to have your first job, finish college, get married, start a career, have children, retire, etc., varies both over time and across cultures.

What would you say are the "on-time" ages to get married and have a career going in mainstream US today? When would you feel you were "late" (or when would/did your parents start bugging you)? Have some of you conformed to that timeline or varied from it? From personal experience or travel, do any of you know of differences in social clocks in other cultures?

[NataEames]

in the US, the normal time (in my opinion) to move out is either for college to campus or right after you finish college (thats when parents start to press on you).
Getting a job, immediately after you graduate with a degree or within 3 months. But it seems to be accepted that the day after graduating the poor kid goes to apply for a job.
Marriage, at about 25 years for women, 30-35 for men.

In most countries in europe, marriage is accepted at younger ages: women at 18-20, men at 25. Schoolwise, the children who went to boarding school will most likely not come back home to live, but those who went to school from home may sometimes stay until they have kids themselves.


PS Those are just extremes and examples, not everyone in every country is the same. I'm 24 and im sitting on my ass at home everyday on the internet and playing online games! And no-one dares to bug me for that!