I agree that adult suffering (and young-adult suffering) can differ from child suffering in ways that make things worse for the adult.
For example, older people have known people close to them for longer, and formed deeper relationships; I wouldn’t be surprised if a sixteen-year-old found it more difficult to recover from a parent’s death than a six-year-old.
The same goes for other kinds of unfortunate events; a six-year-old might not be able to contextualize the pain from illness, but if I knew I were going to spend a month sick in bed exactly once during my life, I think I’d rather it happen at age six (I miss school, watch cartoons, and catch up later) than thirty-six (I have to renege on a complex network of obligations to my employer and my children, losing opportunities that I may never be able to recover).
I agree that adult suffering (and young-adult suffering) can differ from child suffering in ways that make things worse for the adult.
For example, older people have known people close to them for longer, and formed deeper relationships; I wouldn’t be surprised if a sixteen-year-old found it more difficult to recover from a parent’s death than a six-year-old.
The same goes for other kinds of unfortunate events; a six-year-old might not be able to contextualize the pain from illness, but if I knew I were going to spend a month sick in bed exactly once during my life, I think I’d rather it happen at age six (I miss school, watch cartoons, and catch up later) than thirty-six (I have to renege on a complex network of obligations to my employer and my children, losing opportunities that I may never be able to recover).