I’ve been behaving like a grownup for so long I can’t remember the turning point. Probably when I first ate an entire block of chocolate in one evening.
But I recently bought what I thought was a jumper with a zip, but realised afterwards was a cardigan. And immediately I felt old.
There’s the aforementioned TP moment as well as the aforementioned tater tot moment. It didn’t get hard-core real for me though until my daughter was about two months old and I had her in a store and needed to use the restroom. I had no stroller and no carrier with me and wasn’t about to leave her in the infant seat of the cart OUTSIDE the stall.
So I went into a stall and did the whole going-to-the-bathroom maneuver, undoing and re-doing my belt and jeans, one-handed while holding her in the other arm. That, my friends, is independence.
One day I phoned my Mom.
Me: “Hi Mom. Guess what I’m doing. I’m eating my dessert before my dinner. Want to know why? I’ll tell you why. Because I’m a grown-up and I can.”
Mom: “Yeah. I phone your Nana and say that too every now and then.”
My sister pointed out last night that being a university student is the antithesis of being a kindergartener (although I’m not sure that she used the word “antithesis”). As she put it, for a university student nap time is the greatest treat ever, and students very quickly learn that you cannot, in fact, eat pizza for every meal.
It was the day I left my first husband and for the very first time, lived by myself.
I have moments like these from time to time. Once, driving home from work after recently graduating college, I thought to myself, “Hey! no more homework! EVER!” (Grad school changed that of course).
Back in '04, I bought my own car, with no help from anyone, financial or otherwise. I even opted for the more expensive model. Because I could.
Sometimes, getting dressed for work, I see my dad in the mirror in a white button down shirt, boxers, and black socks.
Two years ago, I realized that I’d spent some Christmas gift money on socks and underwear. And was glad about it.
As a kid, I hated taking baths. As an adult, I love it.
As a kid, I hated taking baths. As an adult, I can’t get enough of them.
As a kid, December 25th couldn’t arrive fast enough. As an adult, December 26th can’t arrive fast enough.
When someone told their young son to refer to me as “Mr. Chuck.”
They happen continually. I just had one a few weeks ago.
I determined to get a new car for myself. Looking at used cars (I buy used)…
Test drove an '11 Impala. Nice car, sufficient acceleration, comfortable interior.
Test drove an '11 Charger. 350-odd horses, roared like a banshee, stylish and sport interior…
And I chose the Impala. The Charger was a bit too mid-life crisis for my 45-year-old self.
…man, you really like baths.
For me, it was around the age of 20, selling a guitar to pay the rent. No one is coming to my aid but me.
I don’t know if it’s when I first felt like an adult, but it was when I first felt not-young.
I was stopped at and looked over to the car next to me where two college-age girls were amusing themselves by making exaggerated kissy faces to the old guy next to them - me.
Uh… that second one should have said naps, not baths. But I loves me a good nap in the bath. On December 26th.
The first time I bought a toilet brush, and it was actually to clean the toilet.
Stepping off the plane in another country alone, for the first time, and realising that what I did then was entirely up to me, but no-one was going to come rescue me if I did something stupid.
There are several stages I think.
The first is when I realized I no longer really enjoyed so much the stuff I enjoyed as a kid with the family - such as fishing and camping with my dad. I wanted to do stuff to impress kids my own age - my friends.
The second is when I realized that the people I wanted to impress most were girls, not my existing (male) friends. Followed by the whole group of boys I grew up with gradually going seperate ways.
The third was traveling and discovering how to survive on my own, dealing with everyday stuff, and moving out of the house. Followed by the realization that I had to pay for everything by working.
The fourth was when I realized that other people depended on me - and in fact, having a kid, I wasn’t really the star of my own show any more.
Now, I’m at the point where I love doing the stuff I loved doing as a kid again - only, as it were, on the other side.
Good one. When I was around 23ish, I had some very welcome and unexpected time off come up for me. After putting a little thought into it, I decided that what I really wanted was a beach vacation. I had never rented a car before (and ended up not doing it then), never bought my own bus ticket before, never booked a hotel room before… Up until that point, all vacation plans that I had ever made were really handled by my parents.
I had to get myself someplace far away (for my then comfort-zone) and survive for a few days. It was totally liberating!
Since it’s almost Christmas, the four stages of life:
I’m on stage 3 now, which is definitely an adult stage.
I hear ya on the consumables. Also, the first time I got an electric bill and I immediately turned into my dad. “We’re not paying to AC the outdoors, close the windows if you want the ac on and turn off those lights if you’re not using them!”
A recent one for me was when I started my current job and they asked how much I wanted to have put in my 401k.
Yeah. The first time my toilet overflowed at like 11pm and I had to get up for work the next morning. And I realized that I had to fix it and clean the bathroom, right that minute. There was nobody else to do it.
Agreed. My recent grown up moment was realizing that I HAD to get the toy my son told Santa about. It wasn’t a stupid expensive toy, it was just one I had no intention of getting for him.
I’m Santa, and Santa is not going to get away with disappointing my son this Christmas.
Last year I got my first application form from AARP. There’s no turning back now.
I’m going to start wearing my belts around my sternum and look for early bird specials.