[chiuchimu]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

But you are judging based on what your English acquaintances would do. That is what I am trying to say - doing things that are considered the cultural norm in one country but not in another doesn`t mean that the person is childish. The things that are judged to be childish in one culture may be the expected behavior in another.

Judging based on your own culture, and assuming that the behaviors mean the exact same thing no matter what culture the person is from is simply wrong. It would be along the order of assuming that men from a culture where you greet each other with a kiss means that they are homosexual - even when it`s just a greeting to them and is perfectly normal where they are from.

Another cultural tidbit - the attitudes toward behavior for older people (60+) is a bit different than younger people. You`ve earned the right to be a bit demanding and selfish.

Anyway, all the "childish" women usually turn into very sensible and "adult" women once they have children. This isn`t magical - they don`t evolve into a different person. It is considered normal by society to like cute things, etc etc, so there is nothing "childish" about it. Setting an age where you should "grow out of" things is cultural, really.
I know a woman who loves cutesy things, has a full collection of figurines from Disney, can pull a "pout" to look cute, etc... She was the lead surgeon on the team that did the emergency operation on me to save my son`s life and speaks at several medical conventions a year. It would be very hard to call her "childish", even if things she likes would be considered so outside of Japan.

Well said.