Had two today:
-My christmas wish is new clothes.
-I just found out we are getting brand new copy machines at work, which made me more excited than the big shiny box with my name on it under our tree (which I suspect may be a copy machine/scanner-thing, ironically).
Yours?
I’ve got two, both shortly after I moved out on my own.
Standing in the grocery store, frozen food section. Suddenly my eye is drawn to beautiful golden brown and deliciousness in the midst of red plastic. Oh. My. God! Tater Tots. I can buy Tater Tots. Any damn time I want to! And cook them! In my own oven! And eat them all up! 
Not quite so enjoyable, but educational: At home, on the phone, someone has some information I need to write down. I reach for the pens next to the phone…wait a minute. This is my phone. In my home. I don’t have pens next to the phone like Mom does. Or paper. Or…holy crap! Someone has to BUY the pens, and paper, and paper clips and a stapler and rubber bands! Office supplies don’t just magically appear when you need them! :eek:
Yep. I knew I was a grown-up.
The realization that I had to live in a world that didn’t give a damn about me, and that if I didn’t suck up to that world every day, it would crush me.
When I started lusting after appliances. I would kill for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer! And don’t get me started on the Kenmore pedestal front loading washers and dryers…the red ones are so pretty!
My realization of “I’m grown up” was when I was 23 years old, stuck in traffic, pouring rain, in my car, listening to Etheridge’s “Come to my Window”, while on my way to the mall to buy a present for a classmate’s bridal shower. Right there, it hit me.
for 1), I don’t feel entitled to shit just because I’ve continued to exist. for 2) I hate how the holiday has turned into a mad frenzy of “I must spend enough on shit to give someone.” Christmas turns otherwise rational people into frazzled, nervous wrecks who obsess over making sure they make an effort to “spend equally” among gift recipients.
I just wish this bullshit would go the fuck away.
Last year, for my birthday, I got a new HVAC system. Whee!
Yep, I’m a grown up.
When I was arrested for slapping my sister. As kids it gets you grounded. As an adult, ot lands your butt in jailnwith a $5k bond, which requires a judge to set. (On an aside, you can slap a complete stranger and only be set a $1k bond, which the local sheriff can set. If you’re in Ga anyway.)
Mine was similar to Whynot’s The first time I was completely out of t.p. and I realized there was nobody else who could possibly have used it or should be responsible for it’s replacement. My welfare was up to me! :eek:
In basic training when I realized I could and should fend for myself.
This is going to sound really morbid but…
Becoming a parent at some point I realized that suicide was no longer an option, that no matter how shitty my life got it no longer belonged to me and I had no choice but to suck it up and take care of the people who depend on me.
We just got a new computer. The old one was a piece of shit that nobody used (I think it was purchased in 2003) and the desk it was on was covered in junk and clutter.
In preparation for the new machine, I de-junked and de-cluttered the desk, arranged the printer and all the other peripherals neatly and hid the cords from view, and bought a new office chair and an area rug for it to sit on. (As opposed to our old “sit on a folding chair” setup.)
Then I looked at the finished product and literally sighed in satisfaction. And then thought, oh jesus, I’m actually a grownup now.
A grownup with a nice computer, though. Now I will stay up too late drinking coffee and playing Bioshock and then I’ll feel better.
i think that is the very definition of an adult, someone who accepts that their responsibility is greater than they are.
When I looked out the window one morning, saw the ground covered in snow, and thought, “Oh, fuck.”
When I had to decide to put down my 15 year old golden retriever who had been my best friend for over half my life.
I think it’s the ability to realize that you are never going to be good enough, or strong enough, or anything enough – that your place in life is at the end of your rope - and being okay with that.
FWIW coffee filters flush easier than torn up paper towels. 
Driving home in my first car, that I paid for myself with my own money.
I was 23, I’d only just got my licence (I’d been living as a poverty-stricken student in the UK in the years preceding, and only about 1 in 20 of my classmates and friends had cars - I certainly couldn’t afford that shit). I went way way out in the boondocks to buy this car for cheap from a dodgy mechanic (who, in retrospect, totally saw me coming - it was a cheap second-hand car but by crikey that POS damn well SHOULD have been cheap!)
It was about a half an hour drive home, late afternoon. There was a moment when I crested a rise and saw the whole city laid out before me and thought, wow, I’m driving my OWN CAR home. I totally own this “being grown up” shit.
Best drive of my life. 
When I hit the January sales with a friend - she was buying boob tubes and partying clothes.
I was buying half price Xmas tablecloths and placemats to use in my house the next year
The first time I apparently qualified for a seniors’ discount.
I never felt old, and just dealt with adult fares on transit, adult prices at the movies, and such, as they came along; but to be told that the price I’d pay would be less than the “adult” price–yeah, that was a shocker. I was obviously a grown-up.
It’s only happened once, but it was a wake-up, for sure.