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I'm an Adult Now

I just got a new job! I have an office...and insurance...and paid vacations...and weekends off...and I won't have to wonder if I'm going to be scheduled to work on Christmas Day! That definitely makes me feel like an adult.
 
When you've made a decision that permanently alters your life forever after, and made it after careful thought and consideration, that makes you an adult IMHO. Having a baby or getting married are good examples.
 
I think that moment was when i realized they were playing Van Halen on the oldies station...


A few years ago one of my co-workers was bemoaning the fact that the songs she listened to in high school were on the oldies station. I said, "What are you complaining about? The stuff I listened to is on the classics station!"
 
Nowdays it's people my age who are grandparents that do my head in.
I remember being somewhat freaked out the first time I asked someone on a date and she said she'd check to see if she could get a babysitter. Then came the day I asked someone out and she said she couldn't because her daughter was coming home from college that weekend; I actually had a dizzy spell. :rommie:

To be honest my freaking out with people my age being grandparents has a lot to do with the age difference between me and my mother. I'm 42 years and 6 months old, and when my mother was my age I was *counts on fingers* 10 months old. Can you tell we're Catholic? ;)
 
For me, it's the opposite, when my mother was my age, I was nearly 14.
The idea of parenting a 14 year old at my age seems nightmarish! :eek: :p
Makes me sympathise with her a lot - she lost all of her youth looking after me. She would never put it like that herself however, she tells me she enjoyed it. I guess we're very different people!
 
In the UK, there seems to be double standards. They consider someone to be an adult at 16 when it suits their purpose to get more money out of them, such as paying adult prices for buses and cinemas etc, yet they're not considered "adult" enough for other stuff such as voting, drinking, smoking, purchasing pornographic material and stuff like that until 18.

America's worse, though, with higher ages.
Every young person I know in Europe do NOT want to come to America, since they feel they have less restrictions there than here.
 
There is no definitive answer, as I see it.

I've encountered plenty od "adults" who lack basic common knowledge, can't do simple math, write in a mixture of lower and upper case letters (I'm not saying everybody's got to be a English wiz, but come on...), can't form complete and coherent sentences, get their information from blogs, political propeganda sites, act like 15 year olds, etc., while I've also met young folks and, fir example, my cousin's daughter, who have far more intelligence than many adults I have met.

Though every few years now, about five, I've been noticing an overall decline in intelligence amongst new youths. It's getting to the point where I can't even hae a conversation with one, or even stand to hear them speak.

As with most things in life, you can't lay a catch-all blanket over it. Case-by-case basis.
 
Nowdays it's people my age who are grandparents that do my head in.
I remember being somewhat freaked out the first time I asked someone on a date and she said she'd check to see if she could get a babysitter. Then came the day I asked someone out and she said she couldn't because her daughter was coming home from college that weekend; I actually had a dizzy spell. :rommie:

To be honest my freaking out with people my age being grandparents has a lot to do with the age difference between me and my mother. I'm 42 years and 6 months old, and when my mother was my age I was *counts on fingers* 10 months old. Can you tell we're Catholic? ;)
I'm from a Catholic family, too. My Mother was 20 when I was born and 37 when my youngest Brother was born. Which is an improvement over my Grandmother, who was 43 when my youngest Uncle was born. There were six in that family, four in mine. Contrast that to my Sister, who has two kids and was 29 when the youngest was born. It takes a few generations. :rommie:
 
In terms of my mental understanding I've felt like an adult for a very long time. In terms of my ability to function in the world practically, I'm still a child.
 
I'm always impressed when I read/hear teenagers or even people in their early 20's say "I'm only X age so I have a lot to learn". Every time I see this I do a double take because I would have never said it myself. I moved out of home at 16 and probably assumed I was an adult from the age of 17 when I got my first job after finishing high school and was living on my own in a studio. By 18 I was living overseas and completely independent from any parental aid (not that there had been much of it). Looking back I was definitely an adult then, albeit a young adult.

Not being dumb with money--that's what I would see as a mark of adulthood. I know plenty of people in their 20's living at home and blowing all their money on drinking and going out. If you're going to keep living at home you should be saving like a maniac because this is the absolute best time in your life to do so. I don't get how people extend the teenage stage where you blow all your money from your part time job for the fun of it into their 20's and even 30's.
 
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