Kidult - Yeah It's a Real Thing

The puer aeternus [Latin for eternal boy or child-god] is a term used by psychologist Carl Jung to identify an adult whose emotional level is that of a young adolescent.

You may know a grown up here and there who seems to be stuck in Peter Pan mode, refusing to embrace adulthood and all its demands.

However, this is not an isolated occurrence. Not by a longshot.

In the last few decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of adults exhibiting the interests of children, leading to the new term of kidult.

Shockingly, adults are buying children’s toys for themselves, and this accounts for about 25% of the industry sales.

The consumer behavior group Circana [formerly NPD Group] reported that adult purchases of toys [from board games to action figures] constitute 60% of the industry growth in the $9 billion annual spend.

That’s a lot of Legos and Darth Vaders. Of course, toy makers are now catering to this new source of consumer demand.

Is this trend merely nostalgia for lost youth? Escape from the drudgery of an office job? Decompression from stress? Harmless fun? Or something darker?

Of note, it seems that men are more often labeled as kidults. What is happening to our men?

Could it be the result of broken marriages and the missing father in the primary home of their children?

Could it be a subconscious response or a deliberate pushback to decades of being labeled toxic for exhibiting traditional masculine qualities?

Could it be the lack of a rite of passage for all children, boys and girls, to move into full adulthood through cultural rituals, trials and tests, major milestones and achievements?

In ancient Sparta, boys went through the agoge, a training and education program, from the ages of 7 to 30. Although considered an adult at age 20, another ten years were required before a man could marry.

The goal was to create soldiers, instill discipline, cultivate survival and endurance skills, and mastery of hardships and harsh conditions.

This is far beyond what is needed in the current world, and though controversial even in its day, the agoge serves as an example of the importance placed by the Greek Spartans and other cultures on the maturation process and the need for strong adults.

Broken families and absent fathers have had a devastating effect, especially on boys. Now we see a growing number of adults who never crossed the bridge to adult responsibility, who seek out toys to escape their fate.

It has often been said that one of the characteristics of the modern world is the disappearance of any meaningful rites of initiation.

~ Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation

And where does this lead us but cultural collapse and ruin?