When you’re young, you can’t wait to grow up. You want freedom, independence, and to get out from underneath your parents’ watchful eyes.
And then one day, boom! You realize you’re not a kid anymore and you now have responsibilities and it’s time to be an adult.
These AskReddit users share the moments they realized it was now time to be an adult. Officially.
1. It’s official
“Yesterday, I was asked what I want for Christmas and I said groceries.”
2. That’ll work
“Last year, when my mom asked what my husband and I wanted, we told her socks. It was the second best Christmas gift she’s ever given me, the best being a vacuum cleaner a few years prior.”
3. Sir?
“I was running to the train station from college and I ran past an elementary school and I heard one of the kids yell “Sir, are you running away from the police?”
She even used the formal way of “you” that we use towards adults in the Dutch language.”
4. Inheritance
“I didn’t get a normal “welcome to adulthood” transition. My parents died when I was 16 and I inherited all of their adult problems.
When they died, I didn’t even understand what a checking account was, but I was responsible for clearing up the estate, taxes, life insurance, transitioning my dad’s health insurance to COBRA, their finances and debts, and figuring out what an estate is, how to file taxes, and what a cobra snake had anything to do with getting a doctor’s appointment.
I ended up getting most of it under control after lots of googling and Yahoo! Answers because that was still a thing.
I was cutting my last 2 periods of school because I needed to go to the bank as well as meet with an attorney and accountant, who only worked during normal business hours. I got detention for cutting class…
The attendance office also use to call me, expecting it to be my parents, telling me my ‘child’ was late. I kept trying to explain it to them, but they never listened. Eventually I just started going with it. In the deepest country accent I could muster “He did WHAT!!! Oh don’t you worry ma’em, I’ll be sure to have a talkin’ to him.” Then I’d purposely miss the receiver when I hung up and yell “boyy, you get your butt over here, what’s this I hear about you bein tardy. You be prayin to be back in school when I’m done with you.” “No papa…not the” click.”
5. Pregos
“When I got married and fell pregnant. Now everyone talks to me about adult things. They also don’t tell me what to do with my money or time anymore.
If a year ago I told my parents that I was saving for a cruise to NZ to see the shire from Lord Of The Rings they would have called me “childish” and “I’m wasting my money” But now it’s for my family trip it’s “cute” and “creating memories”. It’s weird man.”
6. Party time
“Had a small get together with friends. I don’t have kids, but a lot of my friends do.
Set the party time for 6, thinking no one would show up till 9. Bell rang at 6. ? (I wasn’t ready)
Kids all over my house. Lugged out my rebounder and a bunch of my old toys that I had stuffed in the storage room, they had a blast.
Everyone was gone by 10, and my house was cleaner than when people came round.
Yep. I threw a successful Grown up party.”
7. Sick and alone
“I was really sick with the flu and there was literally no one there to help. Nothing worse than getting sick in your own place for the first time, and realizing you have to get out of bed and feed yourself if you don’t want to starve to death.”
8. It’s up to you
“I was on a LA subway line and as we approached a station platform a tall homeless man was screaming and shaking his fists in the air. He whipped his head around and started making eye contact with the people on my approaching subway car.
Women and young students started getting uncomfortable and edging away from the open door. The homeless guy started walking toward us, and I noticed people glancing in my direction.
I was the man, and they were clearly looking for me to stand up and confront the situation. It really hit home for me at that moment. I wasn’t a kid anymore.”
9. A new perspective
“When I went to boot camp and realized that I couldn’t run back to my parents without going to prison. Made my whole perspective change on life.”
10. I’m in charge
“I’m a teacher. My first year teaching there was a carbon monoxide incident in our school building. Somehow I ended up in charge of the kids showing side effects of the CO and assisting the first responders with getting the kids medical info. Before the first responders got there I remember looking around and thinking, there needs to be an adult in here and immediately realizing oh shit I’m the adult.”
11. That’s a huge step
“When I could afford to buy pizza for breakfast, but decided not to.”
12. Most awesome thing ever
“Went to a fireworks store for the first time since I was a teenager. As a northerner where fireworks are illegal getting fireworks was the most awesome thing ever. Anyway I went in, looked around and didn’t buy anything because all I could think of was the mess they make.”
13. The big time
“Signing up for my own grocery store club card so I’d use my phone number instead of my moms.”
14. The world is rough
“When I bought a f*cking Mr. Clean magic eraser. When I went from thinking the world is a playground of fun to accepting that it’ll kick your ass if you let it, and even sometimes if you try not to. When I saw Happy Gilmore on the Hallmark channel. When Toys R Us went out of business. When I pulled out my N64 and put Super Mario in, and a spider crawled out of the flap the game goes into.”
15. A strange process
“Wife lost her mother and father recently due to cancer. I’m not close to my parents and when we lost them I realized it was just us. We both make good money but having them there was a security we definitely took for granted. Now we have to be the ones that have enough security if and when our kids need it.
It’s hard to explain but it’s like a switch flipped on inside my head and that little bit of teen angst was gone. It was a totally weird process mentally not only being a husband and father but also becoming the patriarch of the family.”
