When will I feel like a proper adult?

[MishMashMosher]

I'm 27, married with 2 kids, pets and a job, yet I still don't feel like a proper adult yet. I still feel like I'm about 17 inside. A lot of the time I just feel like I'm winging it! Does anyone else feel like this? Will I ever feel like a grown up?

Kid,job,partner,house. Other people look to me for advice or to look after their own kids. I'm nearly 33. Nowhere near a grownup and still winging it everyday. Half the time I even forget what age I am and it all comes falling down on me.

I started to feel more adult when other older adults started to turn to me for advice and opinions. Like when your mum treats you as an equal adult.

More seriously, I’ve suddenly had to become one with a very unwell child who is utterly depending on me to get her well again.

I am often surprised though when I get chatting to strangers who say things like ‘when you get to our age...’ and I think jeez you’re years older than me (and realise that no, I may be older)

I guess it’s just a state of being rather than a feeling, like being female or being tall or whatever, I just am.

I know this is lighthearted but I recall the exact date I finally felt like an adult - 4/9/13, in the registry office doing my DM’s death certificate from where we went to the funeral home and I was discussing coffins and Crematorium fees. I was 49 years old.
That said, yesterday I was dancing around the kitchen to 80’s music being 17 again, it was fab.

I'm 33, kids,house,married etc and feel exactly the same!

When I'd lost my mum, my dad moved in with us and I was taking the parent instead of the child role.
That said I'm now 62 and sometimes think I'm still young as I dance around the house.

52, married 3 adult DC, full time responsible job, carer...and still not grown up... and don't want to be

Being grown up is a con

I felt like that too, wondered when I would ever be really grown up. I have to say though, having a child matured me, being responsible for that little person and all it entails. Still enjoyed being young but there was a definite change for me.

This thread is great because I didn't realise so many others felt 'not properly grown up'. I was 'normal' after all :-).

You are quite normal op. Just enjoy your life.

Everyone feels this way. Paradoxically I think you will only start to feel properly grown up once you accept that you will never feel properly grown up...

I am mid fifties, with a teenager. I am winging it. Still feel 30 (apart from having a child)

Mid 60s. I’m hoping to wake up one day and find I have gained wisdom overnight...