When Did You Feel You Were Ready For Adult Life?

[BestSportsEntertainer]

In a month, I'll be 16. I'm only two years away from my adult life beginning, but I don't feel like I'm ready. I'm not worried about it and rarely think about it, but I felt it would be an interesting discussion. As a child, you don't have a job, bills, spouse, or children among other things. Then you turn 18 and all these things are thrown or you, and beforehand it can be maybe a little scary.

When did you feel you were ready for adult life? If you're an adult, how has it been so far? If you're not an adult, what do you anticipate when you become one? I'm not worrying about it and I'm fully expect I'll be ready when the time comes, but as said above I felt it would be an interesting discussion.

 

[SJ5522]

Why does your age say 24?
I'm 22 turning 23 next month, I'll let you know if I ever feel 'ready' to be an adult.

When you start your adult life, try and take yourself away from unhelpful people who will pile the pressure on you. Your "childhood" is "over" but don't let them take it away from you like that. Have fun and stuff, don't worry about serious things yet, there's no point. People will act like you gotta get this shit sorted now or your life will be fucked, ignore them - they're scaremongers. Have fun, drink socially if thats your thing and you got the oppurtunity, work part-time jobs (it's so difficult to adjust to full time work with no adjustment period, lots of part-time shit is about 7323864654x better for the CV/resume than one pressure filled full time job)

Most importantly, SAVOUR IT. My god, I did not do this, didn't have the chance because I was almost forced to be an "adult" so early on due to circumstances in my life.

 

[Akhilleus]

If you're wondering if you're an adult or not, you're not an adult. Or you're doing it wrong. You hold onto whatever child you still have in you and you keep it in you as long as possible.

I think we as people, as we get older and we experience things. We experience death and hardships, and the more and more of those experiences add up. Then add on when you start becoming responsibility for me people other than yourself. Your spouse, your children. You're paying bills and taxes, and buying your own food and clothes. And all of a sudden you don't have any of that child left in you.

There really is no set date where a person becomes an adult. In fact look at how much the generations are apart. The Millennial generation and the current Generation Z group, people much anyone born after the mid 80s, are often refereed to as the generation of entitlement. Yet look at what happened to the generation of adults before that, that's the Vietnam War. When you turned 18 there was a good chance you were drafted. Then all those deaths and hardships I talked about earlier are all given a speed boost in your life. Those men became adults way before generations after them.

But simple answer, by the time you are an adult...you won't be wondering if you're an adult yet. Once you hit 18 you'll start experiencing more and more things that just make you say to yourself "Wow, being an adult sucks".

 

[John McCass]

I'm on the edge of my 17th Summer and next month I will turn into an adult, as described by the government.

Most importanly, you should get off the travesty that your 18th birthday marks the begining of your adulthood. Well, I haven't experienced how it feels when you turn 18 but, I'm very close to it. So, I would say there is no remarkable difference. I'd say an adult is that who has the capability to serve his own without relying on kith and kin. When you start paying for your expenses, when you get a full-time job and most notably, when you get responsibility IYKWIM.

When you have these things, you can admit that you're an adult. Adulthood means maturity, okay. That's off the top of my head.

Being an adult is neither a blessing nor a curse. It is just the rule of life. You have to become an adult one day. It is inevitable.

 

[Mustang Sally]

.... I was almost forced to be an "adult" so early on due to circumstances in my life.

That's it. The patterns of your life dictate when it's time to be an adult; the thing is, many people fail to live up to the responsibilities adulthood entails.

When you start taking care of yourself, financially and practically, you're an adult......which doesn't automatically mean you're going to do it well.

When I was 16 (20 years ago) and Welfare was in it's old form, I remember talking to a friend who had a baby at 16. The father wasn't in the picture. She said she was still on good terms with her parents and could have lived with them, but decided she wanted to maintain her independence, so she went on Welfare and lived alone with the baby. This, she explained, made her an adult..... because she was responsible for another person.

Do you see her error? Now that she was a mother, she was either going to be taken care of by the government (Welfare) or by her parents......but in either case, someone was taking care of her. That's what she called independence and adulthood?

I say no......when you have to take care of yourself....and often others ....that's when you attain adulthood.......or fail in trying. If you find yourself unable to live up to your responsibilities, you're not an adult.....it doesn't matter how old you are.

Myself? I'm 36 and been taking care of myself for a long time. Once I was out of school..... working and paying my own way, I became an adult.

 

[Slash-LN]

I guess for me it was when I was 16. My brother was no longer around the house and hadn't been for a few years but I was working at 16 and therefore could contribute to bills and such. I guess that made me the man of the house at that point. I knew then that I could balance a budget and be responsible with money which is fairly important for adulthood. I knew I could take care of minor things around the house that may come up. I started learning to cook when I was roughly three years old, so I knew I could cook for myself. I knew how to do my own laundry. Once the job part happened it cemented the feeling that I was ready for adulthood when it came. And when I graduated high school I left home the same year and found I was right.

 

[TootsieBear]

Around the same age-16-because I realized the world looks at you differently as an adult. Life is okay, a simple man who enjoys life, pro-wrestling, and analyzing everything. Remember to keep it simple, don't spend what little you earn because way too many young adults don't know how to save and manage their money, that a lot of companies want too much for bills and you don't need a lot of things, just the basic things in life. I'm so happy living simple because I have so much freedom than worrying about bills and the like.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

I'm currently 29, I've had a kid for almost 3 years and honestly I still don't feel like I'm ready to be an adult. As of this post, my current situation definitely points to me being ready (got a pretty decent paying job, have a mortgage to pay, pay my bills on time, have a family that's happy and healthy most days, ect.) but some days I still feel like I'm pretending, mostly because a lot of times I simply don't act like an adult, I act like a big kid, not in the sense of "I refuse to cook my kid dinner because I need to finish this level" but I am definitely the type that will take a day off work so I can go to an amusement park (which was actually last Friday for me).

When I look back at it though I would say the day I realized I was in fact an adult was when I realized I could stand on my own 2 feet consistently, there have been ups and there have been downs but I was always able to get through it, many times I had to do it on my own, many times I didn't get through it as smoothly as I would have liked but I still got through it. At least for myself, I didn't think I was an adult until I proved to myself that I could be one, even if a large part of me is still a big kid.

 

[laodaron]

No one's ready for adult life. As a kid, you think about having a dream job, drinking, having sex, staying up late, etc. Once you get here, and I'm 33, you realize that it really wasn't what you thought it was.

Don't get me wrong, having children, getting married, making a good living in an important career, they're all incredible, it's just really differnent from how 16 year old me thought things would go. That's good. Because the other thing I learned was that 16 year old me was mostly an idiot.

So, be an idiot, don't worry about adulthood, because it comes whether you want it to or not, and enjoy youth. Like they say, it's a shame that youth is wasted on the young.

 

[OYDK]

I don't think you ever feel ready for adult life, shit just happens that you have to deal with and before you know it you're dealing with adult problems. I'm currently 22 and I wouldn't even classify myself as an "adult". Although I pay for university, housing, and my car through the money I saved up from odd jobs over the years, I currently don't have a full time job and I'm still helped out by my parents. Once you can support yourself, and for me personally, once I can begin to help out my struggling mother, than you can call yourself an "adult".

The best advice I can give you is age doesn't mean a thing when it comes to the important stuff. Hold on to your childhood as long as you can but accept the responsibilities that becoming an adult brings.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

One of the hallmark milestones that seperates adults from kids is....



When something does not go your way, or if a planned route to a goal does not work, do you shut down the operation, or find another way? Do crumple into a pile of failure, or do you explore every possible resource at your disposal to make it happen?


When you can truly develop what is reffered to in sports as a "next-play" mentality when it comes to turmoil or goals in life, is when you are most of the way prepared for anything you will face. Resiliency and problem solving are paramount.

 

[Navi]

In a month, I'll be 16. I'm only two years away from my adult life beginning, but I don't feel like I'm ready. I'm not worried about it and rarely think about it, but I felt it would be an interesting discussion. As a child, you don't have a job, bills, spouse, or children among other things. Then you turn 18 and all these things are thrown or you, and beforehand it can be maybe a little scary.

When did you feel you were ready for adult life? If you're an adult, how has it been so far? If you're not an adult, what do you anticipate when you become one? I'm not worrying about it and I'm fully expect I'll be ready when the time comes, but as said above I felt it would be an interesting discussion.

No one can tell you when you'll be ready you will know. I'm a lot older than most of the people on this thread, been married for over 25 years and have a 24 year old son. I can tell you he's not an adult right now. He's still floundering around deciding what he wants to take at school, and driving me generally up the fucking wall.

Being an adult comes with being able to handle responsibility without falling apart at the seams. You need to develop critical thinking, like as Norcal said, be able to come up with Plan D when Plan's A, B and C go tits up on you. Oh and that will happen, many times over.

it's not about really having kids, fish can have kids, or about having a full time job, I have friends that are borderline bums. It's about being a responsible person, able to stand on your own two feet, and get through the day. It's not as hard as it sounds, you'll have bad days, and you'll have good days, but if you're still standing tall, then you'll be okay.