- Ask for a washing machine for a birthday present. (We rent.) After all, what will make you happiest over the coming year?
Your turn.
-*want *to take an afternoon nap and go to bed when you’re tired.
-Inigo. The guy who’ll just as soon watch the front-loading washing machine as the TV
When I was younger my partner knew very well not to get me anything related to household drudgery because I wanted something romantic. Now I want a new chipper/shredder and a little electric chainsaw because I’m too nervous to use the big gas powered ones we have. That’s not very romantic but they’ll save me lots of time when I clear brush.
…pass on doing something you really wanted to do because your kid needs you more at his baseball practice.
– stop caring about Christmas/your birthday because you can afford to buy yourself stuff.
– learn to accept your own limitations.
Can say, “you’re not the boss of me” . . .and its finally true!
My “wow, I’m a grown up now” moment came in the appliance department of Sears when I was buying a washing machine. It wasn’t just that I was *buying *the washer, it was that I was *excited *about it.
Are willing to work with raw chicken.
Are willing to scoop the gross junk out of that little basket that hangs over the sink drain.
…Look forward to December 26th more than December 25th.
Sure wish my wife would grow up then! 
We’re getting a new rug for our christmas present to ourselves. Yipee!
All of the above!
Not just washing machines (ours is now 3 years old and we still lurves it) but power tools (old enough to buy AND use safely). Heck, we just bought - get this - a LEAF BLOWER. WOOHOOO!!!
(though a less light-hearted one was in my just-deceased mother’s hospital room, when I said to my brother “guess we’re the grownups now, huh?” and he agreed).
(and another not-so-light one was when we recognized our kid had a problem, and got help rather than denying it, and later discovered that at least one grandparent refused to believe there was a problem - i.e. in that one moment we were better parents than she would have been).
…read a magazine with the tagline ‘for young people by young people’ and do not understand a word of it!!
…buy your cousins and aunties and uncles Christmas presents - it used to be assumed that your mum and dad would let you in on what they got them!
For me it was hiring a babysitter for the first time - don’t know why that did it, after all other baby related business, but that was the one!
That happens to me online a lot. I usually have to google several phrases to figure out WTF they’re talking about. It doesn’t make me feel old, just grateful that I speak a form of English that everyone else understands now.
Look forward to Friday night because you get to stay in, read a good book, and go to bed early without having to do any grading beforehand.
I had a couple friends over for my birthday on the weekend. They both brought their new baby girls, and my birthday gifts were a Baby Owner’s Operating Manual and a “To be read in utero” adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!.
Yeah. These are old, close friends, and twenty years ago birthday presents from them were consistently cannabis-consuming paraphernalia. Or cannabis. Stark contrast, wot?
– when you can keep a secret, even when it’s a really good one
I’m not sure if it’s a sign of growing up or just that I’m strange, but I was really excited when my new sheets arrived. (Hmm, egyptian cotton…lovely lovely stuff)
…when you’re sitting in the jury room, waiting for your turn to be interviewed by the judge and attorneys, when a bailiff comes in and tells you your wife called, and she’s rushing your 2 year old to the Emergency Room, so you’re hereby excused.
… when your birthday is just another day (mostly =^_^=)