The recognition that you are, in fact, a full-blown adult tends not to come as a whimper. It's a sudden blast.
One experience--often mundane--compels a reckoning, and afterward you look around with new eyes. You are an adult with an adult lens. Your reality is tinted, it likely had been for a little bit already, and you conclude adult things about all that you see.
A Reddit thread collected how that moment came about, looked, and felt for a variety of now-accepting, self-proclaimed adults.
For some, it was a big life moment with stakes so high that it was clear only an adult could be in that position. But for most, it was a tiny occurrence; a knee-jerk response in which they witnessed themselves with their guard down acting the furthest thing from kid-like.
Redditor egeuoglu asked,
"What moment made you realize that you are not a kid anymore?"
When You Fit the Bill
"I told my niece she needed adult supervision to do something and she looked me like I was dumber than a block of cheese and asked why I couldn't watch her."
The Younger Generation
"When some doctors or teachers are younger than me." -- letionbard
"The last time I was at the ER I slowly realized that all the medical personnel treating me were younger than me." -- dorvann
"When I went to the dentist and he had the same name, but now it was my lifelong dentist's son." -- JeffTheAndroid
No Longer in a Vaccuum
"When my actions started to change a lot people's life."
" 'If I don't do shopping today I cannot cook for my wife and she would not have any food to take in the other day and in the next day I will be working so no one will buy food.' "
"As an example."
-- ButcherChef
"That Man"
"At work one day when I was 19, I heard a little girl ask her mom, 'What's that man doing?' and I turned to look at what man she was talking about and what the man was doing, only to discover she was pointing at me."
-- Finklemaier
Looking Over the Shoulder
"My first year of teaching. When we told the kids to get an adult if there's an emergency and I realized-I was the adult they would be getting." -- littlemissbookwrm
"I feel you there. Sometimes it just hits me that I'm the adult in the room and I'm responsible for everything, it's such a weird feeling." -- Gneissisnice
"YUP. I still look for a more adult-y adult." -- alykins89
Self-Imposed Parenting
"Having the 'we have food at home' talk with myself." -- NakedKittyAlucard
"Absolutely. I realized it when my thought process went from, 'What do I feel like having for dinner?' to 'What do I have to eat before it spoils and I wind up wasting the money I spent on it?' " -- cicadasinmyears
Cleaning is King
"I was really excited to buy a mop... From that moment on it all went downhill." -- LolaLoops
"When I was excited about a new vacuum cleaner." -- MiLeenalee
Snow Days Suck Now
"When I saw a forecast for snow and I was annoyed instead of happy." -- ApocalypseWednesday
"This is a great one. Kids see potential snow day and imagine all the fun a snowy day brings. Adults see shoveling it out of the driveway just so you can sit thru a sh!tty drive to work." -- ImWhatTheySayDeaf
"It's all fun and games until your car door gets frozen shut. 'Cmon you little...it's already 6:30, I'm late...MOVE.' " -- MEScout
To Do Lists
"When I realized I could never be fully relaxed because there's always some responsibility looming over me." -- SchindianaJones
"This is when weed stops being fun." -- _Citizen_Erased_
"This. This. I envy the younger me when I could just kick back and do nothing all day." -- TooneyLoonnz
Non-Discerning Adult Eyes
"I ate a pack of fruit snacks without checking to see what shape they were." -- mynameisbirthdayboy
"Damn, I'm 31 and not that stone cold." -- a-r-c
"You are unhinged." -- nacho_breath
"I just started biting the cheestrings instead of pulling them apart." -- BananasLover
Suddenly Mom
"The morning after my parent's divorce when I was 10. My father was an ultra helicopter/tiger parent. My mother was a neglectful abuser. We ended up with my mother."
"My siblings and I stood in front of the garage door for an hour before realizing our mother wasn't going to take us to school/daycare. I ended up carrying my siblings to their respective locations before making it to my own school by lunchtime."
"I picked up bus signup slips that afternoon and was forced to forge my mother's signature for the first time to try and get transportation. Later that week I also was forced to forge free lunch slips for us all because no one was going to make us food anymore."
Pragmatic Consequences
"I used to be able to take days off work whenever i wanted and now i find myself having to have the 'if you take that many days off you wont be able to pay your mortgage so suck it up and go to work' speech with myself at least once a week. lol"
-- Ellixxerrr
Me?
"When they said, 'Some people will meet the person they are going to marry here" at my university welcome speech."
"That sh** f***ed me up real good."
It's All Hanging by a Thread
"Realizing that nobody knows what the hell they are doing, everyone is just winging it."
"Asked a mate (one of the most well put together guys I know) if he had any adulting tips. Just came back with "if you ever find out, please tell me.' "
-- Holo323
More Lost than a Life
"When my mother died. I was 17 and the overwhelming sense of 'you're on your own, no one is going to protect you or do things for you anymore' felt like the sharpest transition to adulthood imaginable."
-- dxmxmlxx
Pop Culture Moves On
"When I was 19, I made I made a reference to one of my favorite shows from when I was 8-12, and a couple of 13-year-olds listening had no idea what I was talking about. I'm learning that those moments never stop happening."
-- Happy8Day
The Flash
"I was 23, no high school diploma, and a security guard doing access control at an ice cream plant. I realized that if I didn't get out of there and do something, I would be 50 in the a flash, and not seen or done anything worthwhile."
"My life would have peaked at 20 and the rest of my time amounting to little more than waiting to die."
No More Hiding
"When I decided to have an abortion. There was no more sitting back and letting my life run itself. I had to make a decision and one that would not only affect my life."
"I remember so desperately wishing someone could take over to choose but not doing anything was a choice in itself and one I wasn't mature enough to make at the time."
"Ironically making me more mature in the process."
-- emmamary225
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