When the boy becomes a man...

[MaC]

Something I've been thinking about.  We don't have in the United States a formal trail as mentioned in opt.5 like in some other cultures, so the line is harder to draw.
Your opinion...

[Bono]

When he decides to.

[minionofmidas]

Physical maturity.
No, I'd say moving out of the house, actually.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Suggest you read Kiplings' poem, "If"

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/quotations/poetry/rudyard_kipling_if.html

[A18]

Turning 18, I guess.

[Hatman 🍁]

Puberty

[angus]

I say economic dependence.  For me, around 23 or so.  I mooched off mama till I graduated college, more or less.  My friends, especially those who didn't attend college, started taking care of themselves financially just after high school.  It varies, but that's what "moving out of the house" meant to me.  (Folks sporting your dorm room or apartment during university not counting, of course.)  And I noticed that my friends who didn't attend university matured, in that way, during the 18-22 years (or, say 18-30 if you count graduate degrees) much more than I did.  Also, having a child really is life-changing.  But that can happen as young as about 15 and as old as about 60, so it's hard to quantify based on that alone.  That said, I think Bono put it best.  All these choices we make ourselves.  But for me it was definitely not before 21.

[MaC]

Puberty

when he hits puberty or when he's finished with puberty?

[John Dibble]

Legally speaking, 18/21. But real manhood is not about physical age, but mental maturity and conviction to do what's needed.

[Hitchabrut]

13 is when one must be upheld as a man, but individual differences allow for emotional maturity at different times.

[Citizen James]

Suggest you read Kiplings' poem, "If"

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/quotations/poetry/rudyard_kipling_if.html

My grandmother used to say that if you can keep your head while others are losing theirs, you obviously have no clue what's going on.

[opebo]

Out of these options, sexual intercourse.  But really it is a fairly silly concept.

[Nation]

A combination of moving out of the house and an exhausing mental/physical trial. I lean more towards the mental.

[angus]

The same problem with moving out of the house - does that mean a 45-year-old living with their parents is still a child?

good point.  at 24 my sister moved in with my mother to help her cope.  as she watch a slow, painful, agonizing death that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy take my mother's life.  Sad, indeed.  Too sad for me, since I wasn't mature enough to handle it at 26.  My sister was thus more a man than I at that time.  Clearly one of us needed to be there, and it was she who could stomach the ordeal.  Not I.  The 45 year old may have reasons for living with his mother that we do not know.  Excellent point.  Obviously I was generalizing.  That said, I still say there's a burden which accompanies adulthood.  Whether that burden takes you away from your parents or toward them, the acceptance of the burden is adult.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Getting suspended or expelled from school for the first time.

[King]

Getting suspended or expelled from school for the first time.

That just makes him a chollo or redneck.

[Alcon]

Getting suspended or expelled from school for the first time.

Or scoring disturbing, undisclosed scores on his first IQ test, and publishing his first insane, socialist publication with toilet humour!

[MaC]

Getting suspended or expelled from school for the first time.

bandit wins!  I got suspended and became a man when I was 14 in 8th grade.  Ha, all the rest of you "good guys" aren't real men.