Being a Grown Up

Being a grownup is cool because you can drive and stay up late and drink coffee and all, but I am starting to feel that whoever wrote the brochure was not entirely honest about the whole experience, and would like to know who I can speak to about getting my money back. - Rebecca King, my friend online and on the Book of Face

Becki put this on her Facebook wall this morning and I canNOT stop thinking about it. She's exactly right.

Being an adult means that I can drink coffee all day long if I want. I can have it for breakfast, for lunch and even right before bed should I so desire. I remember being a kid and watching grown ups drink coffee, and thinking to myself, When I'm a grown up, I'll do that. I will know I'm a grown up when I can drink coffee.

My parents both drank their coffee black. There is no way in the world I could ever drink my coffee black. None. I'm still a grown up. That French press sits on my counter top all day.

But being a grown up means that when I make money, it immediately goes to the enormous stack of bills that resides right next to my computer - where I will never lose sight of them and forget to pay, say, a water bill. Not that I've ever done that. Nope, not me. Cuz grown ups never ever forget to pay a bill.

Being a grown up means that, should I find money in the washing machine, it immediately becomes mine - and then I use it buy bread. Or milk.

Grown ups are ALWAYS buying bread and milk. It's like they bathe in it or something.

Being a grown up means that I can stay up as late as I want - and I'm often the last person to make it to bed - but it also means that I'm the first person up in the morning. Being a grown up, above all, means being short on sleep every.single.day. I cannot think of a day that I haven't been tired since I was a grown up.

I bitterly regret all of the naps I tried to skip out on when I was young. I never understood why grown ups YAWNED so much.

Being a grown up means that when I walk in the house, I almost always go directly to the kitchen - not to grab a snack, but to wash the dishes and check out the fridge. Probably to see if we are out of bread. Or milk.

Man, I can't WAIT to be a grown up! Imma do what I want, when I want - and NO ONE is going to tell me what to do!

Well, no one IS going to tell me what to do - but if I don't do those things that I don't want to do - the laundry and the dishes and the bill paying and the disciplining and the difficult talks and the spanking, oh Lord, the spanking - the rest of my life is going to be much less enjoyable. Being an adult means that I have to be self motivated to roll out of bed, early enough to make sure the day will go smoothly for everyone, and not sleeping in until the last possible minute and to heck with everyone else.

Being an adult means that I can't jump in the car and drive to the waterpark. It means that I need to make sure I have sunblock/water bottles/towels/hand sanitizer/snacks for the car/hair ties and hats. It means that I won't be riding every ride - not that I really want to, anyway - but I'm an active participant in the Watch This, Mom - No, wait, that's not it - watch THIS! -  and nod and smile.

Being a grown up means that if I don't want to do something, I don't have to - but that lack of focus will almost certainly affect more people than just me and have longer, more far reaching consequences than I might ever anticipate. It means that I will almost certainly never have enough money, enough time, enough freedom or enough sleep. Being an adult means that I'm almost always worried about something or someone, often have three (or more!) situations in my brain that I'm mulling over at any one time and frequently am puzzling over something - probably having to do with situations that affect other people. 

But, there's the alcohol. That's a bonus too. (I'm kidding. Don't email me and tell me that you are concerned about my alcohol intake. Please.)

When I was a little kid, I desperately wanted to be an adult. It seemed so cool and so carefree.I didn't notice all the time that grown ups sat around doctor's offices for other people. Or, really, all the time grown up sit ANYWHERE waiting on other people.

Now that I'm an adult, I realize that being an adult definitely has some bonus moments, but I would give a lot to go back to the freedom of childhood.

 

 

 

Comments

[kyooty]

remember that party of childhood where we were growing and growing and growing and we could eat almost anything?

[Cheryl]

amen....

[Becki]

My mother also drank her coffee black. And cold, which I always thought was odd until I became a mother and realized it was because she never had time to sit down and drink it while it was hot.

If you are ever in the neighborhood of my home, I hope you will have time to stop for a cup of (hot) coffee from my ancient percolator, with cream and the liqueur of your choice. I'm partial to Frangelico.

[PamL]

I have been thinking about this too. How about those summer days when all you had to do was get up (whenever you wanted), eat something that someone else had prepared/bought/given to you, and then just play all.day.long. How I loved those day--playing in the woods, in the neighbor's pool, dress up in another neighbor's garage. Then just come home for dinner, bed and wake up the next day and do it all over again.....great memories.

Actually, that is what my kids are doing and they are loving it. I guess that should make me happy, but somehow it's not the same.

[Megan]

Well, I do have to say...I don't miss homework. Especially essays.

I think as kids we all looked at adulthood and thought, "WOW, that looks awesome. I'm going to stay up all night and eat cookies for dinner, and I won't go to work if I don't feel like it." And now we look back on childhood and think, "Gee, all kids do is play. Must be nice!"

In reality, I recall being miserable a lot as a kid. Nothing was fair, nobody understood, other kids were mean and school was dull as dishwater. I think I actually prefer being an adult, even with the bills and work.

But those college students. They've got it made!

[JMB]

This is very apropos for me today. Yesterday I got into a huge fight with two of my sisters at a family party. I thought being a grown up meant you didn't fight with your sisters anymore. Well I was wrong. Being a grown up means sometimes you have to suck it up and get the cousins together even if it makes you mad.

[addy]

Yeah I was just lamenting this the other day. I work all summer, winter, fall and spring. Except for stolen vacations that are never long enough. And I never get enough sleep. And I don't want to take care of everyone everyday forever......... Yea I think I want my money back too.

[MelissaS]

Childhood is indeed full of magic - food and clean clothes magically appear, needs are met out of thin air, and everyone has a magical money tree hidden somewhere to buy all those toys, right? That can only mean that adults are magical people to make all that happen :)

I, too, dream of sleeping in and then drinking a cup of HOT coffee (though I do like mine black)!

[sarah]

While I totally get what you're saying, I just thought I'd point out that almost all of these things are the product of being a parent, not being an adult.

[Nicki]

Now I can't stop thinking about coffee and liqueur. *sigh*

Anyhoodle, I know I thought being an adult would be way more fun and exciting (I blame all the books I read). Boy was I wrong. Right now I am trying valiantly to explain to my about-to-turn-20 son why he no longer gets a summer break and not actually laugh out loud when he who demanded to be treated like an adult is, in fact, being treated like an adult. Welcome to adulthood, isn't it fun? :)

[Tara]

You make many wonderful observations, but I can honestly say that I never wish I was a kid again. I'd rather be an adult with bills and have freedom and responsibility. Hands down, every time.

[lisa]

...but being a grown-up means NO ONE yells at you for opening TWO cartons of ice cream at the same time! See there's perks!!!! :)

[Cheryl]

I would not ask for my money back if someone would just hand me the "How to be a Grown-Up" manual that I am convinced we all should have been given. Or am I one of the few that missed the meeting where they were giving them out..........

[keira]

this post reminds me of a saying i pinned a few weeks ago... " when i was little i couldn't wait to be grown up. now i'm grown up and this s#*t was not what i expected!" :)

[LizP]

Bread and milk ... what is up with that? I am CONSTANTLY buying those two items also!!! It's like my husband and children do nothing but consume them ... I am allergic to both so consume neither.

[Sonja Holzman]

Dishes and laundry. Those are the two most recurring themes in my world. And thought I try (lord how I try) to delegate those chores, they just don't seem to get done unless I do them. I definitely had to help fold laundry! We would take over the dining room table and make piles and once the piles were done, each person had to retrieve their own, before dinner, as that was the table we ate on most often. Had to fold my dad's tighty whities - that horrified me!! haha

[KG]

Great post!!
I'm not gonna email you about the alcohol thing. I will just call you out right here & now. I am concerned. Very concerned... That we have not had the first Margarita together this year.
And I probably should stop joking with you like this or some people may believe that we're raging alcoholics.
FYI
Countdown starts SOON!

[Brandy]

The sleep is what I miss the most. Love this post. I LIVE this post.

[beth]

Here's a grown up moment:
calling in the mortgage payment from the delivery room while waiting for an epidural.
:)

[Laura H.]

I remember one magical summer. It was the summer I turned 15, and I had a best female friend, and a best male friend. I learned so much that summer; I learned what it was like to crush hard on a friend. I learned about flirting, and body language, and just seemed to have all the time in the world. I still think about that summer often, though I would not go back there; I know too much, now, and it wouldn't be the same. That boy ended up being my cousin-in-law, as I married his cousin when I turned 18 and am still very happily married, almost 16 years later. I talked to him on the phone very recently, and we laughed and reminisced between talking of children, and bills. Mostly, usually, I like being an adult. Except when I don't. Then it sucks.