# Do you feel like a grown up yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 16, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520 "2001-08-16T05:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kellibelli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e480ec/32.png) [@kellibelli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellibelli)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/1 "2001-08-16T05:11:17Z")
I am 32, I still dont. I feel like I have no age, like I am dreaming and this cant possibly be my life, like I am in the Matrix and its all some freaky programmer’s idea of fun. I dont feel connected, is that normal? Do you feel connected to your life? Do you feel like you are just a guest in someone elses life? I start school in a few weeks, but I am not really nervous, its like it isnt even happening. Its happening to someone else. I bought my school supplies, packed my breifcase …nothing, no connection. Are you what you thought you would be when you grew up? DO you feel like you are where you are supposed to be? ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/2 "2001-08-16T05:14:47Z")
You know, usually I don’t. I keep thinking someone’s going to catch me without my parents to look after me. Except, then I’m in front of my class, trying to explain that while you can claim “this book sucks!” you do actually have to support your opinion and the kids look at me like I’ve said that in order to eat grout, you must butter the tiles . . . uh, yeah, that’s when I feel disgustingly adult. ---
**Author:** ![Kittie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Kittie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kittie)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/3 "2001-08-16T07:15:17Z")
Hell no! But I like it that way…I’m just basically coasting through life and enjoying every minute of it. ~Kittie ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/4 "2001-08-16T07:41:55Z")
I don’t. I skipped right past feeling like a grownup on to feeling _old_. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/5 "2001-08-16T08:49:51Z")
Of course you don’t feel like a grownup. You’re still going to _school!_ ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/6 "2001-08-16T08:54:50Z")
Whenever I look at a Playboy™ I sure do!! ---
**Author:** ![honkytonkwillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@honkytonkwillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/honkytonkwillie)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/7 "2001-08-16T09:43:55Z")
No. I’m 31 years old. I’ve graduated from college. I have a wife and children and a career. I’ve bought a house and done lots other adult things too, but still I don’t feel grown up yet. I just feel like a big kid most of the time. It doesn’t help that all of my co-workers are at about 15 years older than me. And my neighbors too. Maybe it’s because I’ve never grown a mustache. ---
**Author:** ![Spider\_Woman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/8 "2001-08-16T11:26:59Z")
I am 47 and still don’t feel grown up. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/9 "2001-08-16T11:32:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spider Woman \* > \*\*I am 47 and still don’t feel grown up. \*\* Me too. When my grandmother was 47, she had 5 grandkids. I can’t imagine what that was like. My own mother was born a “grown-up” I suspect. I go to work and pay my bills and mow my lawn and compute my own taxes, but I still haven’t figured out how to do the grown-up thing. Lucky me, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/10 "2001-08-16T15:12:42Z")
I certainly don’t feel like a grownup. Being 37 and living with my mother might have something to do with that–hey, I did just graduate from college, after all. Now that the summer is drawing to a close, though, I am about to be thrust back into the adult world. My fabulous summer job will be ending, and I have to find another job and a place to live, since the arrangement with my mom was only for the summer. Sigh. One advantage to being a grownup, however, as I have realized after spending a long weekend camping with my 16-year-old nephew and his 15-year-old girlfriend, is I can spend the night with my boyfriend and nobody can tell me not to. My life hasn’t even remotely turned out the way I thought it would. In some ways, it’s a lot better, because when I was younger, I didn’t have a lot of ambition for myself, I was just kind of coasting through and never tried to imagine what I might be capable of doing. But I also would have thought I’d be settled by now and not living in this weird limbo that my life currently is. ---
**Author:** ![Tygr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@Tygr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tygr)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/11 "2001-08-16T15:12:58Z")
I haven’t for quite a while. Until last night, driving home from the baseball game, my darling, beautiful, seven-months-pregnant-with-our-first-child wife turns to me and out of the blue says, “Have you found yourself thinking that you’re about to be completely responsible for a whole 'nother person?” [sub]:: Long silence::[/sub] “Well, not until just now.” For the last twelve hours, I’ve been steadily feeling my ungrowed-up-hormones leeching out of my body… _sigh_ _You kids get off my lawn!_ [sub](Aw, crap, it’s further along than I’d expected…)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![ultress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/7c8e57/32.png) [@ultress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultress)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/12 "2001-08-16T15:41:13Z")
At 45 I feel like my life is flying by. Nope I don’t feel like an adult, although I’ve raised a son, now have an 11-year old stepdaughter, and have done all the responsible adult things that I am supposed to do. Other than my body aging, my mind and thoughts are pretty much the same as when I was 35. I certainly don’t feel 45. I hope I feel this way when I’m 65. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/13 "2001-08-16T16:31:02Z")
36 here. And a couple of weeks ago, I bought my first airline tickets. I’ve flown a lot, but have never had to buy the tickets myself. Of course, they were to Disneyland, but whatever… When we got to Disneyland, my friend R stopped cold inside the gates. I asked him what was up. “I just realized,” he said, “That I can do this. Without my family, I can just pick up and come here, fly out, spend a few days…” I pointed out to him that Main Street, Disneyland, was an odd place to have an Adult Moment. ---
**Author:** ![Bubba\_Ray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bubba\_Ray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bubba_Ray)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/14 "2001-08-16T16:41:52Z")
I am 24 and I dont feel grown up at all, but sometimes I beginn to feel old… Kids stop saying hey you, or f\*ck off and starting to thread me with respect (the respects old people get), People start using the more formal pronoun to adress me (for those who wonder I am german and we have the informal “Du” and the more formal “Sie”) and a few weeks ago I found my first gray hair and realised that I have ness time to my 30th bday than to my 18th… that was scary, but I may be old, but I dont feel grown up. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/15 "2001-08-16T17:11:52Z")
Oh heck, I’ve felt grown-up since I was about 15. Now I’ve got two toddlers to attend to, bills piled up to the roof, and life in a city where the taxes only go up. I’m going to feel young someday, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/16 "2001-08-16T17:15:44Z")
I feel old. My back is screwed, I have too much debt, and I have a kid about to enter 3 grade. I remeber when I realized I was old. I used to be well known in the punk comunity around here. I always had some little punker kid I didnt remember knowing coming up to me and asking if I remember them etc…So…I’m standing in line at a supermarket, and a group of punks are hanging out. One of them heads toward me, walks up and says “Pardon me sir, could you spare some change?” The sir part really stung. Mostly punks would only panhandle to older folk…I realized at that moment I was…Old. ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/17 "2001-08-16T17:18:03Z")
Nope, not at all. I often muse about this in my [livejournal](http://www.livejournal.com/users/lolagranola/), actually. I think I should feel grown up by now. My oldest child is 11, and I just turned 30! It doesn’t help that I’m the youngest parent at my kids school, either. I’m always laughing inappropriately, buying more jewelry, and speculating over the latest Buffy episode. I just bought a toe ring and I’ve been thinking about getting my tongue pierced. I’m just not like the grown-ups I remember when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/18 "2001-08-16T17:18:03Z")
Nope, not at all. I often muse about this in my [livejournal](http://www.livejournal.com/users/lolagranola/), actually. I think I should feel grown up by now. My oldest child is 11, and I just turned 30! It doesn’t help that I’m the youngest parent at my kids school, either. I’m always laughing inappropriately, buying more jewelry, and speculating over the latest Buffy episode. I just bought a toe ring and I’ve been thinking about getting my tongue pierced. I’m just not like the grown-ups I remember when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/19 "2001-08-16T17:18:41Z")
At times I still feel like I am only in my early twenties, but I don’t feel like I am a grownup. It was a terrible shock this year to realize I have now lived longer after my high school graduation then I have before that (I am 38)…sigh…where did the time go, and when will I finally feel grown-up? Keith ---
**Author:** ![Sophie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Sophie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophie)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520/20 "2001-08-16T17:19:36Z")
Mr. S and I recently bought a brand new truck. We walked into the dealership, we signed some papers, and we drove away in it. There was no co-signing. Then, we drove the truck to the house we bought last June. And when we pulled into the driveway, we both instinctively looked out the windows for the falling pianos. Someone, soon, will realize that I am an impostor adult, and they will take all my stuff away from me…until then, it’s a fun joke to play on the rest of the world. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-like-a-grown-up-yet/76520.md?page=2)