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Original poster

What age did you think you were an adult?

91 replies

jennymanara · 01/06/2019 11:34

Just found out on MN yesterday that in Scotland you are legally an adult at 16, I know in England and Wales it is 18. Don't know with NI.

But when did you first consider yourself an adult? Even if your parents would not have agreed?
I thought of myself as an adult at 16 years old. I was working full-time from 16.

OP posts:
Samcro · 01/06/2019 11:35

16, i was working so assumed I was lol

tomtom1999xx · 01/06/2019 11:37

Same as Samcro, I was working full time at 16, so to me, I was an adult.

ScreamingValenta · 01/06/2019 11:37

I'm in my 40s but I haven't yet reached that age! Grin

crosser62 · 01/06/2019 11:38

God not until I was 23 and buying my first house!

I was a kid even after that!

Tableclothing · 01/06/2019 11:38

I expect to attain adulthood in the next couple of years or so. I'm 36.

DobbyLovesSocks · 01/06/2019 11:41

I'm 35 with a DH, a child and a mortgage. Still waiting for the 'feeling like an adult' to kick in lol
Seriously though, probably when i was 18 and moved away from home to attend university. First few days living on my own were lonely and downright bloody awful. Then I met my DH and things improved dramatically

PinkHeartLovesCake · 01/06/2019 11:43

I am a mother of 3, married, own a business, own a house and honestly I still have moments now when I think of my age and think I can’t be an adult.

So I’ve never had that I’m finally an adult moment

KatherineJaneway · 01/06/2019 11:43

When I was carer for my Mum who had terminal cancer. One day I realised that I had become the parent and she was now the child. I was the adult now.

Isth · 01/06/2019 11:46

Mm. Depends really. I guess about 18/19. I was an adult but aware I was a young adult and still had a lot to learn. Are there degrees of adult-ness? I moved in with my ex at 19, was working full time and didn’t rely on anyone for anything so I guess then. I ended up moving back in with my mum at 22 (ex was physically and mentally abusive) but I had far outgrown it by then and couldn’t wait to get out again.

fourquenelles · 01/06/2019 11:47

I am 63 and saw a beautifully stylish woman in a cafe yesterday who I want to be when I grow up!

Seriously when the first of the next generation called me "that lady/woman" so about 24.

ReganSomerset · 01/06/2019 11:52
  1. I knew before that, but didn't feel it until 23.
jackparlabane · 01/06/2019 11:54

Probably 17 after finishing A-levels and getting work and moving away from home. Being responsible for groups of kids over the summer then paying rent felt as grown up as it gets.

Don't think my parents felt I was grown up until after ds was born, so 35!

SmellMySmellbow · 01/06/2019 11:54

I remember, at the grand old age of 7, thinking I must have reached peak maturity because I felt very mature and couldn't imagine that I would change much as I grew up, I was just waiting for my body to catch up.

AppleKatie · 01/06/2019 11:56

I thought I was an adult at 18.

In hindsight? I suppose 21 when I achieved financial independence I guess.

Or never?

MaudebeGonne · 01/06/2019 12:01

I thought I was at 17 when I moved out of home and onto a house share. I realised I wasn't when I was 27, broke and having a TOP after a ONS and copped on to the fact that I had no plan, no resources and most of my friendship's were shallow and fairweather. I don't feel like I have all the answers and I still make some foolish (and repetitive, boring, old patterned) mistakes, but I am an adult. I take full responsibility for myself and my family, the strengths and the weaknesses. I don't always want to be, and I am lucky that I have opportunity to share the responsibility with my husband, but yeah - we are adults now.

MaudebeGonne · 01/06/2019 12:03

Katherine, that must have taken a huge amount of strength and courage. I am sorry for your lost.

NameChangedNoImagination · 01/06/2019 12:05

28

Bythebeach · 01/06/2019 12:06

Well I thought I was an adult when I was 18....age of majority and all that. And thought it again when I got my first proper job at 22. And when I bought my first home. But looking back I think it wasn’t until I had my first born and was the one with ultimate responsibility for a wholly dependent human that I was REALLY an adult 😂

Toddlerteaplease · 01/06/2019 12:06

37, buying a house. Have two cats and a car. Still waiting!

Orangehandtowel · 01/06/2019 12:07

I thought at like 16.. but really looking back it was more 24 I really matured, brought ahouse, had Ds.

Birdie6 · 01/06/2019 12:08

At 19 I started working and left home, so I felt like an adult . Unfortunately, every time I went back to visit my parents, I'd end up feeling like a child again, dammit !

soulrunner · 01/06/2019 12:15

When I was 18 i was basically taking advantage of being an adult without the responsibility. I’d say 25 was when I was properly one.

Oliversmumsarmy · 01/06/2019 12:18

Nearly 60 and my children are more adult than me.

Been told I probably have ADHD

Fedoratheexploreer · 01/06/2019 12:19

When I had DS1 at 17

choli · 01/06/2019 12:23

18, when I left school, moved to the city, started my first job and started sending money home. Different expectations about the maturity of young peoples brains on those days, I had no problems behaving as an adult.