As we grow up many of us dream of that day when we're all grown up. Hoping for a successful career, a huge house, loads of friends and everything being perfect like it always is in those films (at least, in the end).
Then we hit adulthood, and everywhere our friends say they wish they could go back to being a child again, when life was less tough and things were a lot easier. If we wanted to spend time with friends we just had to use our pocket money or beg our parents to let us stay out a little later, now if we want to go out we have to be prepared to beg the bank for an overdraft extension just until pay day.
The reality is being an adult is tough. You know you're an adult when...
- You get a day off and having the chance to sleep in until 8am is bliss. When we were younger we thought laying in on a weekend meant sleeping way into the afternoon.
- You have to budget your finances. Decide between having a coffee with friends in a cafe or having your 'five a day'.
- Seeing your friends doesn't mean hanging out down the local park anymore, it means scheduling, re-scheduling, calculating a budget, chatting for hours and not having a chance to do it again for months.
- Something goes wrong and there's nobody there to help you fix it. As a child the biggest thing was when a disk got scratched or a doll lost its head. Now, when the freezer breaks down you have to go and buy a new one, no matter how expensive, and fast before the food defrosts!
- You realise that the dust and dirt where you live doesn't just get removed by some fairy. Actually, there did used to be a fairy, often called the head of the house but now, you are the head of the household. Better go and buy some marigold gloves and get scrubbing.
- It's time to find somewhere to live and only you can make that decision and figures out your wants and needs. If only life was as easy as somebody cooking you food when you got in from school.
- Things that we used to deem worthy of spending our money on such as games, clothes, shoes and books suddenly become things that we look through the window at longingly, dreaming of a pay rise that will never arrive.
- You get excited about a new range of rice or pasta that means better value for your money, and you see your shopping bill drop by a massive 5p a week. Almost worth throwing a party about!
- You no longer feel the need to offer everybody around you a piece of chewing gum, because you know that people aren't going to make you feel guilty or bully you into it. Suddenly people respect that it's yours and that if they want their own they will have to blooming well buy it
- People approach you in public and start asking you to sign up to donating to a charity. What they don't realise is you don't really have any money to spare because your wage doesn't even meet the living wage.
Above are ten examples of the hundreds of things that make you an adult. What examples do you have, good and bad and when did you realise that it meant you was an adult after all?