The #1 sign of adulting has to be paying for your own stuff.
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Mine was paying for an airbrush, and i was in my 40's by this point, but the realisation i could buy a completely superflous, but expensive, thing for myself was a bit if a wow. But yeah house bills also lol
Celebrities (especially politicians) younger than me existing.
How dare they, frankly. Tell them to get off my lawn.
Ahhh, see mine is but even being aware of who counts as celebrities these days
When you stop caring if something is a childish thing or not. Some people never get there.
You empty the dishwasher immediately, as it is the only time during the day you have the time to do it.
You wash your sheets, because of the calendar notification popping up.
you vacuum the flat on saturday at 8 AM, as that is the time to vacuum the flat in your planner.
The most exciting thing in my life right now is the spreadsheet I just made to track chores.
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Taking responsibility for your own actions.
Not just mistakes, but being proactive about positive things without needing to be prompted.
A bit of both for me. Whenever I dropped a bollock in work or whereever, my head used to go down and I'd be waiting for the hairdryer treatment like I was waiting outside the headmaster's office.
Now, if some cockwomble decides to mass-email someone with a passive aggressive email about "could the person who..." and it's quite clearly my mistake, I take great pleasure in absolutely owning it, smashing that reply-all button, and explaining in painful detail how yes it was my fuck up; yes I did do it with good intentions but hey things go sideways sometimes; and yes abso-fucking-lutely thank you for your shitty email that has had all the effect of a silent fart.
I think the best part of adulting is that you can make no mistakes and still lose (yeah Picard boiiii), and realising that nobody's going to care about it in a week's time.
I'd point out that taking responsibility for your actions doesn't necessarily mean fixing them on your own.
It's often more difficult (and more adult) to acknowledge that you've dug a hole for yourself that you can't escape from on your own and ask for help.
Saying this as the parent of young adult children that are adulting well, but still need to ask for help. Also as the old adult child of my parents who must still force himself to ask them for help.
I was in my late 20s and two of my uncle was having a heated argument over politics. Everyone else was quiet, afraid to say anything. I spoke out in a normal tone, not raising my voice, "that's enough". They stopped immediately. It was fairly surreal.
When your empathy extends to people you don't even like.
"They are angry because they are suffering."
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One big sign is when you stop demanding to be treated like an adult and just start being one.
Being an adult is just a decision you make one day.
Years ago my older brother was on the phone complaining to me because our mom found out he bought a motorcycle and was mad at him and my dad (who helped him pick it out).
He wanted to know why my mom thought she could treat him like a child.
I pointed out that when he decided to get a motorcycle and kept it secret from our mom, he was acting like a child and enabling her to treat him like one.
I have no interest in ever owning a motorcycle. However, if I ever did, it would never occur to me to keep it secret from anybody, because I'm an adult in charge of my own life. Everyone else can have opinions, but I get to decide whose opinions matter to me.
You find yourself in a hardware or furniture store and everything looks cool.
When you see your parents as people and stop blaming them for everything.
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When throwing away a perfectly good box is a well thought out decision after the box has been in a staging area for some time while you think about it.
Most of my boxes are cat scratchers. Some of them are to paint on. A couple are in a closet in case I have to return the expensive thing that it housed.
I posted a gif of Ray Liotta laughing in Goodfellas a few days ago. Someone replied telling me the gif was perfect, and asking what was it from?
Having the opportunity to buy cake whenever you want, having enough money to buy cake whenever you want, and choosing to not buy cake whenever you want.
choosing to not buy cake whenever you want
That's past adult and goes into senior territory.
basically means you can watch adult movies and commit this thing called adultery. ezpz.
kidding aside, i think a good sign for me is following through with my decisions, and, if i decided not to, acknowledge my mistake and learn from it.
Sounds mundane but a few days ago, for the first time I bought myself a jacket. I am 28. My grandma loves to gift clothes for christmas especially stuff like jackets, so I didn't really need to buy one until now. On the way back from the shop I felt weirdly adult. I bought most of my other clothes myself for around 10 years, but never a jacket
Starting to remember the good reasons why you DIDN'T like something in the past and trusting your past judgment.
Coming around and disagreeing with your younger self hits pretty hard
That happens first, then one more time you will be faced with the same choice, and you will remember that happened and that you were already wiser once.
Being around kids and being seen just like I remember seeing adults when I was little. Assumed authority and decision making power and the answer to every problem or wish.
You find yourself compulsively drawn to woodworking.
I have been working my wood ever since I became a man
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Buying and cooking your own food. Reading the nutritional info on labels.
You start to wonder, “when am I going to feel like an adult?”
When I got a well-paying job, earning me about 10 times as much as I did while working as a teaching assistant at uni. I realized I could afford more than renting a student apartment and cheap food. Buying furniture, an apartment, having kids, tech toys. A car.
Makes me feel independent and in control of my life, I guess.
Your body starts betraying you.
More specific to becoming a middle aged man, I started finding any sport enjoyable regardless of what it was. Additionally I started listening to history podcasts. Not sure these are gendered activities but there is definitely a stereotype that men start getting more involved in sport and history.
I got towels, cast iron pans, and a new knife for Christmas and couldn't have been happier.
I'm still a bed by the wall person though. when me and my partner get a house that will probably change, but for now I like having a corner to sit up against.
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When I truly internalized that I don't have to prove my worth to anyone, even if I don't always know what I'm doing.
Looking back, that sense of self-worth and confidence is what I probably saw in all of the adults around me that made them seem so incredible as a child.
So when I felt that, I thought "huh, so this is what being an adult feels like."
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