I thought until now that Adult Child was simply adults acting like children. I also had a hard time finding a distinction between it and Manchild until I read the pages closely and found the difference:

• Manchild is an adult that acts like a child.

• Adult Child is about adults acting more like children because they hang around them a lot.

Many,many of Adult Child's wicks and examples confuse it for Manchild and many of the examples don't even interact with children much. The laconic and playing with for Adult Child also mistake it for Manchild. Since Adult Child has 1000+ wicks I'm not sure a rename will be in order, but something has to be done.

edited 1st Apr '12 1:05:20 AM by Oreochan

"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

The names of these do always confuse me.

SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)

I'm not entirely sure these need to be two tropes. If they do, then Adult Child probably needs a rename/rework...

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

Manchild is more immature and irresponsible, Adult Child is more naive and innocent.

SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)

Also Manchild are childish from the start,they barely mature and are usually very dependent on other people. Adult Child does act mature on occasions when they need to. As for a rename, Manchild is a preexisting term, I don't know if "Adult Child" already existed before we cataloged it. Both Adult Child and Manchild's names sound like they are about the same thing, which causes confusion.

edited 15th Jan '12 7:30:11 PM by Oreochan

"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

I don't think "Adult Child" is an existing term, I think changing that one would be a good idea.

SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)

Yeah, I don't think it preexisted and means the same that it does here, before we made a page for it either. I did a search for it on google and all people seem to use it for is "child who is now an adult".

"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

That is what the phrase normally means. A parent of an adult child is a parent whose children are now adults and no longer children.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

I thought it meant a child who acted like an adult. This either needs a rename or to be merged with Manchild with maybe internal subtropes for the distinction between the two.

That's Wise Beyond Their Years, which Adult Child says to not confuse it with,(which is still easy to do). I can't shake the feeling that they are different enough to keep separate. However, rename might be in order given that it will be used for its actual definition,what Manchild is and being Wise Beyond Their Years, the inversion.

edited 15th Jan '12 8:16:58 PM by Oreochan

"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

Giving a new trope a similar name as an existing one when they are distantly related but actually quite different seems like a really bad idea. The phrase "man child" is meaningful; "adult child" is... not. It's a flashing neon sign that says "Misuse me!"

edited 15th Jan '12 9:59:11 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

I'd suggest renaming to something like One of the Kids.

I guess it is.

Should I do a wick check? Although there are 1078, I can at least do 150 or something like that.

"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

Go for it.

"Shit, our candidate is a psychopath. Better replace him with Newt Gingrich."

I kind of like One of the Kids, actually.

SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)

Me too.

Problem being the lack of the one being a kid in the title.

Fight smart, not fair.

Yeah, there needs to be something that indicates the adult. I'll try to get the wick up soon.

"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

Bump.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Blank Slate should be added to the list of tropes not to be confused with Adult Child.

edited 11th Feb '12 1:19:52 PM by ArcadesSabboth

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.

Support renaming Adult Child

@Deboss: You think "One of the Kids" doesn't work because it doesn't include the word "adult"? One of the Boys doesn't include the word "girl," but I think the implication is very clear: a girl that plays around with a lot of boys and is usually tomboyish herself. One of the Kids works the same way, only this time the opposites included are "kids" and "adult," with the adult not so likely to act their age (at least around the kids). I don't see either as being so ambiguous that someone would completely misread it.

I don't know if it might be a bit cleaner to make the reworked Adult Child a subtrope of Manchild, and possibly make another subtrope to cover the cases that emphasize irresponsibility over naïveté or a failure to grow up over a choice to act less mature at time. I've honestly never heard the term "Manchild" before coming here, to tell the truth, so I don't really know the full usage of the term outside of the wiki or if it's usually as specific. Is it usually as specific elsewhere as it is here, or does it end up just meaning "a man that acts like a kid" regardless of the circumstances?

I like One of the Kids. It's clear, and it implies to be about someone who normally isn't one of the kids.

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

Alright, here's the wick check. Adult Child currently has 1131 wicks and 361 inbounds. On a related note, is there a general trope/index for any character that does not act or behave their age or is that already covered by the aging tropes we have?

---

Zero Context Examples or Unclear: 15 wicks.

• Bloody Urban
• Elf
• Ashita no Nadja
• Cranial Eruption
• Demon Diary
• Fate/hollow ataraxia
• Characters/Freefall
• Grown Ups
• Gingers Bread
• Hikaru no Go
• Home Alone
• Hanasaku Iroha
• Infinite Space
• Kore wa Zombie desu ka?
• Martin Mystery
• Michiko To Hatchin
• Ms Splosion Man
• Patience

---

Misused for being immature,childish instead of this behavior being influenced by children. Also for any of the tropes that are confused with adult child: 35 wicks.

---

• Acceptable Hobby Targets
• Adults Are Useless
• Badass Damsel
• Belligerent Sexual Tension
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer
• Little Nemo: Says the character plays with toy trains but this doesn't seem to be because of children.
• Coming of Age Story
• Competence Zone
• Dolls: Says that the character plays with dolls but doesn't say whether this was because of hanging around children.
• Dragon Crisis: Says the character is irresponsible and messy but doesn't say whether this behavior was because of hanging around children.
• Department of Child Disservices
• Ducktalez: Describes why the character is childish but doesn't say whether this was because of children.
• Evil Counterpart: Says Psychopathic Man Child is the evil counterpart to Adult Child. Since Adult Child isn't simply "childish adult", Manchild fits better.
• Fairly Legal
• Family Guy: Mistaken for Manchild.
• Fan Hater: Mistaken for Manchild.
• Fille Fatale: Says that the character is childlike but doesn't say why.
• Fire Emblem Seisen No Keifu: Says the character is very childish at times.
• Genius Ditz
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Innocent Fanservice Girl
• JerkassWoobie.Anime And Manga: Says that the character is "essentially a child in the body of a seventeen-year-old" but doesn't say this was because of interacting with children. Besides, that sounds more like Kiddie Kid.
• Kaleido Star
• Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran
• Late for School
• Laughably Evil: Mistaken for Manchild
• Least I Could Do
• Love Dodecahedron
• Legal Jailbait
• PlayingWith.Parenting The Husband: Mistaken for Manchild
• Precocious Crush
• Psychopathic Manchild: Mistaken for Manchild
• Science Court: Misused for childish.
• Selfish Good Selfish Evil: Misused as simply being childish.
• Suppli

---

I checked 50 out of 1131 wicks. 15 of them are Zero Context Examples and 35 wicks are misuse. Most of the wicks I checked thought the trope was acting childish, immature or mistook it for Manchild or Kiddie Kid. None of them explained that this behavior was because of hanging out with kids instead of being childish by nature. I have yet to actually see correct use of Adult Child.

edited 2nd Apr '12 4:41:42 PM by Oreochan

"Learning without thinking is labor lost. Thinking without learning is dangerous."

Childlike Adult, maybe? Manchild is an accepted term, and is used in the same way it is on TV Tropes.