Photograph: Jack Sullivan / Alamy/Alamy
What does being a grown-up mean? And when is a good time to be one?
When the idea of your mortality creeps in and haunts.
Edward Black, Church Point, NSW, Australia
• I can’t do anything about growing old; I will be 70 next birthday. However, I never intend to grow up.
Jonathan M Winner, Parksville, British Columbia, Canada
• It means treating your parents instead of them treating you. My Dad tells me that it is always a good time to be one.
Anna Lee, Dorset, UK
• Being grown-up is a state of utopia in the minds of children peddled by the adult world around them, not unlike Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy and a host of other make-believe characters. And so, in their minds, it is always a good time to be one.
Stuart Williams, Kampala, Uganda
• To be grown-up means being responsible and independent, making decisions, giving as well as taking and being self-confident. It’s a handy condition when faced with failure or choosing between money-making or a job that could help other people.
And it’s very good to be grown-up at the time when a parent dies.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• When you stop getting taller but keep getting older.
Alexandra Wesson, Perth, Western Australia
• Many of us seem to be trapped between the Peter Pan syndrome and the Forever Young movement, especially in a country like the US. Both deny reality while consciously postponing the hard decisions.
The best time to grow up is right now – take full responsibility for your actions and their consequences for everyone else on this planet.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• As a teenager, it is best to put off being a grown-up for as long as possible. Because you already know everything.
Malcolm Shuttleworth, Odenthal, Germany
• It means knowing what the bastards are actually up to, and it is never a good time to be one.
Greg McCarry, Sydney Australia
• Whenever you begin to grow down as gravity prevails.
R M Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
Take some time to chill out
Why do most people stand still on escalators?
When it comes to the allure of shopping, they’re happy to be taken for a ride.
Loine Sweeney, Adelaide, South Australia
• We are not in that much of a hurry.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• They don’t in Sydney during peak hours: they are keen to get to and from work. They hurry past on the right, while we stand on the left.
Adrian Cooper, Queens Park, NSW, Australia
• It provides a few moments of respite and contemplation between one busy world and another. Also, it allows one to look at the people on the opposite escalator, maybe even exchange smiles.
Norbert Hirschhorn, London, UK
• Being kind, perhaps because they don’t realise they are allowed to walk up and down.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia
• Most of the alternatives seem a tad perilous.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Because it’s hard to dance!
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
Any answers?
Is there any country that punches below its weight?
Robert C Keogh, Crawley, Western Australia
If you could ‘uninvent’ one thing, what would it be?
Stuart Williams, Kampala, Uganda
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
