SpongeBob's age

I'm mainly writing this because my sister insists he is a child.

The moral of the movie was basically "it's okay to be a kid," with SpongeBob and Patrick as examples of that. Unfortunately, we know they're both at least old enough to drive, and they live on their own.

On The Bully, Patrick said that Flats was his old college friend. I'm not really sure how Patrick got into college, but that's beside the point. There have been a couple images shown on other episodes of SpongeBob and Patrick as babies or young children together, so we can assume they're the same age, and past college.

In the episode The Chaperone, SpongeBob tells Gary that he couldn't even find a date for his high school prom. Gary meows, to which SpongeBob replies, "No, that was Patrick who took his mother." Thus, they are both through high school. It also backs up the fact that they are around the same age.

Aside from all that, he has a full-time job, and it's stated occasionally that he's worked there for years. On the movie, he actually had enough Employee of the Month awards to be in his fifties! But then, on Breath of Fresh Squidward, he had a zillion and six.

I'm not sure who said it, but I remember in the extra features on the movie, it was stated that they didn't mean he was literally a kid. They meant he thought and behaved as one.