WHEN DO YOU GROW UP?

Personally, its hard to codify adult into a single factor. I've always had major issues with people who codify adults as liking certain things and not liking others, or making certain decisions. My political and religious views, as well as my hobbies and my attitudes towards jobs were all things I was told I would 'grow out of'.

Adulthood to me nails down to a few factors:

-When you start reliably sacrificing the wants and nows for the needs and laters. Usually that means a job and actually doing it (IE I want to stay home and relax, but I need money to keep going), but can also be financial planning and such. Usually things that are less primal to humans, and thus less gratifying immediately but we know pays off.

-Worrying less about how others view you, and more about how you want to present yourself. Seems nitpicky, but when I stopped caring about 'oh, how does so and so see me, oh what can I wear to get this groups approval', and more 'This is how I act/dress because this is who I am' I could look back and notice how much more defined as a person it made me.

-Being able to acknowledge your mistakes, learn from them, and then move on from them. When I was much younger, I would defend everything I did or said to the line. Nowadays, I can look back on things I did five seconds ago and go 'Damnit, that was stupid'. If you can look back on yourself yesterday, and realize what you did that was idiotic, you can grow from it. Technically, we're always growing, I guarantee tomorrow I will be smarter and more learned than I was today. So you never finish 'growing up'. At the same time, don't hammer yourself about your mistakes, you can't change the past, but can amend mistakes you made. Don't begrudge yourself a stupid choice you made years ago, learn from it.

-Realizing that while you are the hero of your own story, so is everyone else, and everyone has their own perspectives. This is really hard, because even the people we are closest to, we only see the barest slice of their life and perspective. We often make snap judgements about everyone, because we see them only for a bit. While that doesn't excuse truly assholish actions, it does help to give us some perspective. Dismissing people as 'assholes' or 'idiots' offhand tends to insulate us from other perspectives, and gives us a bubble.

So...in essence, being an adult is knowing that skipping is silly, but doing it in front of your class for a lark is fun, as long as your boss isn't watching. (Random TLDR)

OH FUCK!

Why does this always happen??

Oh wait I know why because I always leave this shit until just before bed after being at school most of the day!

I learned at age 26 my Mum is actually wayyy more bigoted than I am.

Perfect parent no more I guess. :/

author=Mysticphoenix
If you can accept adults' mistakes, you become an adult.

I accept people of any sort make mistakes, you are still under the illusion that an adult is something other than a legal clarity.

Dogs, Kids, Cars and people make mistakes, I make mistakes.

But you know how it is, you just have this super high regard for your parents if they're any good, and mine are, like there's a respect there that goes beyond just being adult.

It's almost like you were the creature they spawned, and then raised, and chose to do that unless you're unlucky and they constantly begrudge that you entered their lives, but I always felt hella accepted.