To ask how is adulthood different from what you thought it would be like as a child?

How stupid and pointless a lot of work is, and how so much of it is based on the egos and random whims of those in charge. Also how incompetent so many adults are.

I thought I'd have lots of friends to pop in and see for coffee whilst the kids played. Never had that as always worked when ds was younger and i didn't make mum friends

Oh, I thought everything would be easy. I wouldn't cry anymore. I'd eat what I wanted yet still be fit and strong. I'd have loads of money because of course, once I was an adult I'd be able to do anything I wanted.

My kids would have no rules and would always behave because I'd buy them everything and never tell them off 😅

On a more serious note, I thought my friends I had as a kid would always be my friends. Some of my friendship losses have upset me more than a few of my break ups.

I never thought my DH would die when I was very young.

Or that I would have to pick up the pieces, finish a house we were renovating on my own, and spend my old age alone.

i always thought that studying hard would equate to a reasonable level of income and some security in that old age. No one really told me as a child that society doesn’t necessarily reward diligence or effort and that being entrepreneurial or a bigger risk taker would have taken me much further in life.

I thought adults threw lots of sophisticated parties and had invitations to great events all the time.

Yes! I thought I'd go to lots of dinner parties full of erudite professors and professional high flyers.
This was to have occured in beautiful homes with large dining rooms and libraries, plus enormous gardens in summer.

It’s actually been way more exciting than I expected! I remember visiting the US with my parents aged 13. We were spending the day with relatives in Cape Cod and a bunch of us kids, all loosely related, were playing a really fun game on the lawn. All the adults were sitting on a terrace sipping Pimms etc, and I remember thinking how sad they looked, and how they must so wanted to join our game, but weren’t allowed as they were adults.

That, in a nutshell, was my route into adulthood. No regrets here…

I thought all grown ups were actually grown up, good decision makers and sensible. Oh, how we laughed.

I thought I’d have a decent house and good sized garden.

I thought adults threw lots of sophisticated parties and had invitations to great events all the time.

I remember looking in BHS at Xmas with all the overpriced stocking fillers 1 pint glass and bottle of beer reduced half price on Boxing Day. Ridiculous prices and awful waste. I hate stocking fillers.

Really? It was so overpriced and mediocre as was Debenhams.

I thought I'd have house full of cats and wondered why people didn't have lots of pets. I do always have a cat, but cats are arseholes, so ones enough.

I came on to say exactly this!!
I now understand why we, as kids, had the same/similar meals every week - mince and tatties on a Tuesday, cooked meat and chips Saturday.

Love this image!

I thought we only had to choose which career we wanted and it would happen. I thought that the only hard part was making the right choice and sticking to it. I wanted to to be an archaeologist and a trapeze artist.

Thought I'd be able to both afford and have the spare time to do the things I enjoy.

Thought I would steadily climb the property ladder like my parents did.

I should add

I definitely prefer adulting to childing

It's just in the last few years friends have vanished

I realised work wasn't going to be fascinating in my early 20s so I am over that one though. It's just probably the biggest difference. My parents really enjoyed working as well. Maybe I'm just not the type.

I didn’t realise adults were winging it 99% of the time. I thought I’d know everything!

I used to wonder how I could ever be as self-sacrificing as my parents. For example, they let me take more than my share of the mint humbugs, eat my cereal out of the favourite bowl with roses on the side, have the first pick of the new toothbrushes so I got my favourite colour, be the one to press the button on the car park ticket machine...

Now that I'm an adult, I have no trouble letting DD have things like this. Not because I'm noble and unselfish, but because I genuinely couldn't give a shit..

That being an adult would be easier, and simpler than being a child.
That my 15yo boyfriend would one day be my dh of 25 years.
That I would still like and want to do a lot of the things people said I wouldn’t once I was a grown up.
That being a parent can make you so happy.

It’s so much better than I imagined, not having to live with miserable arguing parents!

Very sad to hear this. 🤣

Thank you.

Wait for it - I thought I could do whatever I wanted 🤣

Am I the only one who gave it no thought whatsoever 😬

Quicksand and secret passages have played a much smaller role in my adult life than I expected.

Great thread.

I thought I’d carry on roller-skating everywhere. I still miss it 😢