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What are adults, but grown up children? Is there truly a defining line between an "adult" and a "child"? So why, as a society, do we tend to use age as an indicator of maturity, rather than actions? Is it because it's easily quantifiable? Is there a way to otherwise quantify maturity? Personally I'd say ability to control one's actions. The more you are able to control your actions, the more mature I would view you to be. Of course, like love, maturity is a conglomerate of stipulations that one must fufill into order to be considered as mature.

If it has not crossed your mind, let me bring to light the relationship between maturity and respect. Often it's confused that there is a corelation between these two ideas, when in reality the only relation between them is in your own head.

By this I mean that maturity depends on how the other person acts, whereas respect depends on how you yourself act. This means that it is up to you to decide on how to treat people; then how you treat people, regardless of how they act, is a direct reflection on your moral standing as a person.

The meanings of mature and respect can mean something completely different to different people, which is an interesting thing I think. Denotatively, respect means "To feel or show deferential regard for; esteem." and mature means "Of, relating to, or characteristic of full development, either mental or physical" and this ambiguous definition may be where arguments over their meanings stem from.

The problem is when people believe that they deserve respect instead of earn it. As a child, I've noticed that my parents would be gauleiters in their actions simply because they claim the status of a parent (which, by the way, is a terrible argument), and as a prospective parent and business owner, I must remember that others must cultivate their own respect for me on their own accord, and that I cannot force them to respect me, regardless of how they treat me.

From what I have gathered, those with low maturity but high value of respect tend to weild their power as dictative figures, whereas those with a moderate to high view of respect and a high value of maturity tend to be kinder and more democratic in their decisions. This written thought process naturally does not encompass any other factors that certainly have an influence on the way a person may weild their power such as interpersonal relationships, introspection, and general life satisfaction just to name a few.