this is when you realized you were a “grown-up?”
jeezus.
I think this is the most universal turning point.
When getting snowed in is a problem or a hassle, instead of a free day to sled and play with your friends, you’ve crossed that line, never to return.
You kids! Get your sled off my lawn!
Me? I’m almost 50, and I look forward to a foot or two of snow more now than I ever did as a kid.
Not sure what that means!
When I got married at age 18, I was then grown up. I had to be.
I finished college on my own dime and then went out and got a job.
Now I’m much older and I look forward to snow again, because I’m retired and don’t have to go anywhere or do anything if I don’t want to. I guess that makes me both a child AND a grownup. This is the best of times: I get to be a kid again with my granddaughter, playing with blocks and toy cars on the floor, and if it snows we can chase each other around and throw snowballs at stuff.
Some years back, OK, a lot, when I still wore pantyhose, heels and skirts, I was at the bank drive-thru. After I retrieved my deposit slip, and was attempting to put the plastic carrier thing back in the slot, I dropped it. And it rolled under my car. It was about 110 out, and my first thought was hit the gas and get the hell out.
Then I realized that was not a very adult thing to do to the person behind me in line. So I pulled forward a bit, crawled out under the car in heels, pantyhose and skirt, on blazing asphalt, and retrieved the damn thing. And put it where it belonged. And I realized I was all grown up.
Dammit.
What in the world else would anyone buy a toilet brush for? A magic wand for your “fairy princess of Toiletiana” costume?
I thought my first grown-up realization was when I realized my roommate was a dangerous coke-head and was going to get me killed, literally, and I knew I could not go home to mom and dad for help.
My first REAL grown-up realization was that yes, yes I could have.
I think Filbert meant that he realised the toilet needed to be cleaned, and a tool must be purchased to achieve this, and he was going to do both himself.
Or herself. But probably himself.
Living room productions of Ubu Roi, obviously.
Having kids
having your kids have kids.
These moments tend to reinforce it, but the first time was when I was 21 working in an office and i teased one of the other guys there a little one day and he had a tantrum started yelling, crying and throwing things.:eek:
Once all was settled, the boss called me in gave me a dressing down and finished with the words, “you’re a mature responsible adult and he’s just a kid”
I processed that and almost accepted it for about 10 seconds, before I suddenly lifted my head looked the boss in the eyes and said, " Hang on, he’s older than me"
Boss didn’t care too much about that piece of trivia.
since the girlfriend and i moved to this apartment over a year ago, we had an improvised entertainment center made out of two of those $10 ikea end tables.
about a month ago we went to ikea and picked out an actual entertainment center for the TV and it makes the living room look 100 times better.
Once when I was about 25 a 16 year-old co-op kid from my work was waiting for a friend to come back from the liquor store and then they were going out partying. She saw her friend, waved at me and said “Gotta go - see ya later!” and I said “Okay! Have fun! Be careful!”
:::sigh:::
I’m 55, going through menopause, my son graduates from high school next year. I’ve bought 4 houses, had more jobs than I can count, run my own business, my nieces are parents. I’ve made difficult decisions, put down dozens of loved pets, lived with the consequences of my actions, get called Miss Sah by young adults. The president is younger than I am, most doctors are younger than I am, don’t even remember how many trucks I’ve bought. I’ve married, divorced, loved, hurt and been hurt. I helped my mother when my father died, have pulled a gun on an intruder, fought off a rapist, drank too much, partied too much, bailed friends out of jail, bailed friends out financially and I’m now the go to person when somebody in the family needs to borrow money. I’ve rescued stray dogs, cats and people, have had a heart attack, have built a small fortune, lost it all to illness and then started over.
I’m still waiting to feel like an adult.
This, when my mom passed when I was 42. Until then, I still thought of myself as a kid in some respects.
It happened again just today. I am the only person in the office today. Someone has to be here in case of emergency filings. I’m here, not because I’m the junior paralegal, but because I’m the senior, and therefore the one considered the most competent and reliable. They don’t leave you in charge of the entire court unless you’re an adult. Still amazes me.
I feel you, sahirrnee for me, “adulthood” comes in fleeting moments, where one goes, “Huuh? Will you look at that?” feeling like a kid in grown up clothers and a whole lotta fake-it-till-you-make-it.
Oh, me too. Fleeting moments only.
The scariest conversation I ever had: “I just feel so overwhelmed and scared all the time, like I don’t know what to do. When does that stop? When do you start feeling like a competent adult?” “…I’ll let you know when it happens,” Mom said.
It first hit me when I was grocery shopping and some snot nosed teenager addressed me as “sir.”
My mother was way ahead of the curve as far as healthy eating when I was a kid, so while all my friends had pudding and candy bars for snack, I was stuck with yogurt and granola bars my entire childhood.
My adult moment came as I was grocery shopping one day for myself in college and as I passed the pudding, my inner voice said, “Mmm, pudding, nope, not allowed to have pudding.” But then I realized, “Wait a minute…I can have ALL the pudding, and no one can stop me!” And I have bought pudding ever since.
Another step on the road to adulthood happened for me recently, in that I completed my degree, which led to a promotion to a salaried supervisor position. It’s weird to think I actually have…a career…like some sort of adult.
Christmas: Kids waking me up at 8am because they want to open presents. All I want to do is sleep in.
Last summer I promised my kid I’d take him to Six Flags on THIS day. The problem was that I didn’t realize that THIS day was going to be the hottest day of the year.
I REALLY did NOT want to go to Six Flags that day. But a promise is a promise.
There are a few similarities but most of my list is different from yours. Still, I rarely feel like an adult. My mother went through an illness a few years ago and during that time I felt like I had to be an adult, and I managed to get everything that needed doing done. I thought “this is what being an adult must be like,” but the feeling didn’t last.
My mom’s answer would be that she knew she was an adult when while watching Snow White with my sister she realized she didn’t much care about the handsome prince but she’d love to have woodland creatures show up to clean her house and do her dishes.
I remember being newly married and the wife and I were watching a re-run of the old Newlywed game. We had the realization that we used to think that they had the lamest prizes in the world but now we were like, “Ooh, cool, a refrigerator.”