Oh, and BTW, would any of the single men who posted in this thread like to marry me??
Sure, except for all your damn cats. Oh, and I live across the country. Oh, and I think I might like to have kids one day, and you’ve indicated that you don’t.
Never mind.
Well, I am a grown up…and sometimes I not only feel like it, I enjoy it. Blame it on my organized personality, but I like having a place of my (well, DeathLlama’s too) own. I like having my own car, my own career, my own life, and fully meeting all of my responsibilities. I also like all of the freedom that comes in making decisions, whether on my own or now with my new husband. I’ve always been a fan of independence.
However, I also chose a profession that best lets me get away with NOT growing up: elementary school teaching. I can be as goofy, shamelessly curious, wide-eyed, and pliable as I was when I was ten. Sure, I have more responsibilities now–but I love being shamelessly chid-like. Fortunately, so does my husband, and we’ve both been known–both separate and apart–to chase a flock of seagulls (not the band, you 80s geeks!) off the beach, with our arms flapping while we squawk loudly at them. I like to poke at dead things, he likes to build sand castles so he can smash it. I like to color and draw, he likes to skateboard.
Last night, DeathLlama said, “Our children are going to hate me.” “Why?” “Because they’ll never get to play with their toys. I’ll be up all night playing with them!”
We may be grown up, and we may be adults…we just refuse to get old. At least, not yet!
Thanks for at least considering it for a second, Snooooopy.
I think that if I ever do get married, I’ll start to feel more grown up.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like petting cats. It’s just I’m sooo allergic to them. I tried Claritin, but all that did was confer mildly increased resistance to slackergirl’s two lil’ black cats.
I’m too old to grow up now…I refuse…
Do I feel like a grown up?
-No.
Do I act like a grown up?
-No.
I say, keep the inner child alive.
Nope.
I’m 31 years old, have a good job, helped raise two boys, and have a 401k, but deep down…
I might as well be 18. I want to go out drinking and dancing every night (once I hit 30 though, I started getting hangovers. ugh). I still make bad choices in men. I go after men that I should know better than to go after.
Nope, not at all. I’m with kellibelli and Legomancer on this one. And I do feel like I’m pulling one over on the “adults” when I rent a car, or especially when paying with a credit card. I kinda half way expect them to call my mom to see if I have permission to use it! I still wear jeans, tennis shoes and t-shirts, listen to the same type of music, sit on the floor, and lots of other stuff I never saw my parents do. I thought that when you grew up you had to drink martinis, get your hair cut short(mine is to my lower back) play bridge and talk about annuities. I don’t do any of that stuff.
Don’t feel bad, racinchikki, being grown up is not such a bad thing.
Me, I’m kind of “multiple personality” on this issue. I have “grown-up me”, who pays the bills, cleans the house, values my marriage, works very hard at my career, looks after everything and worries about retirement.
Then there’s “little kid” me who buys whatever toy catches my eye just so I can have it on my desk. The me who loves candy and sweet cereal. The me who would just as soon sit on the floor as on the furniture. The me who plays with the dog and teases the cats. The me who gets in water fights with the hubby. The me who likes cartoons and really bad jokes. The me who was really jealous of the kids at the play-center because they could do all that climbing and swinging and jumping around on the equipment and I couldn’t because I was too big…
Do I feel like a grown up yet? Absolutely not. I’m 26 and I just finished law school, but I still look and feel like a kid.
Maybe it’s because of the pigtails and the Powerpuff Girls T-shirt. 
Yes! That’s me, too! Only I’m not married.
I don’t have kids, so I’m hanging on to that as the last step which separates me from entering that threshold known as “adulthood”…or so I’ve been told.
[David Byrne voice]
“This is not my beautiful house.
This is not my beautiful car.
How did I get here.”
The kids is the biggest step. Realizing that you are responsible for keeping them fed, clothed, and, most important, instilling decent values in them. But they do give me much more of a chance to be a child, since I can (sort of) experience life through the eyes of a child. I can see how excited they get about going to a movie, or playing a game, or building a castle. Playing Barbies or animals with my 4.5 yo has given me new experiences that I treasure.
I kind of enjoy being a grown up. Part of it deals with money. I am more financially secure that when I was 21. I can do more cool stuff. I enjoy knowing something about the world.
When the Babette and I were pregnant (or she was) a friend put kids the best way I have ever heard.
He said “Once you have kids, your life will never be the same. And you’ll never want it to be.”
All of the “fun” stuff that being responsible has pushed aside has been replaced by brand new “fun” stuff.
OTOH, I have given my wife orders to slap me silly if I ever start acting mature.
Well, not yet, anyway…
I have a bad back, bad knees, can’t run more than fifty yards without having severe breathing problems, I find modern young people’s trends incredibly stupid and/or pointless, listen to the music and drive/lust after the cars of 30+ years ago. In short, I feel and act like I’m 45 years old.
I’m 19. To quote Garth Brooks: “I’m much too young to feel this damn old.”
I feel like I have the life I wanted as a kid.
I have a decent job, a nice place to live. I have no dependents, no debt, no baggage. I go and come as I please (for now).
I take fun vacations. I really don’t answer to anybody except God, my clients, and the IRS.
So it’s like I am still me when I was ten or so, because I feel quite directly tied to my childhood. But now I get to live as I please; and it’s that much better because I didn’t sort of just ease into adulthood without realizing it. I feel like I was aware of the “growing up” process and I chose the best parts of being an adult (responsible enough to take care of myself and be independent, but smart enough not to get bogged down by too much responsibilty for others).
It’s like when I was a kid I looked into the future and saw me now, and said, “I’m gonna get that”. Like, I can still look back at me in the past and know that I am still basically the same person, and that I pretty much got what I wanted.
Or maybe I’m just a sociopath.
I think I’m grown up.
Why?
Because when I want to come home from work and eat nothing but pudding for dinner, there’s nobody to tell me not to.
Now THAT is some serious power!
Also every day when I wake up I think, I should sell my house, sell my car, cash in my RRSP’s and travel for about 3 years. And every day I go to work instead. I MUST be grown up - or crazy.
Al.