"Act your age!',"

my mother would admonish me throughout my childhood. After all, I was the oldest, the big sister, and was supposed to set the example. I’ve never really figured out exactly what one does to act one’s age. What age would that be exactly? When I was a child, I thought it meant to act more grown up. But, since I was usually just acting childish when Momma would say that, it didn’t make sense that the statement was supposed to elicit in me a knowledge how I was supposed to act older than I was. Once I became an adult with chronological and life-event measures of maturity, I remained confused as to the question of what acting one’s age meant.