60. I am never going to feel like an adult, am I?

[Orangejuicemarathoner]

Maybe no one ever does, and everyone else is just better at pretending than I am!

To me it would be understanding politics, having a clean enough house for unexpected visitors, knowing how to make myself look smart and sophisticated, eating and sleeping at sensible times, regularly.

But maybe, there are adults who do all those things and still don't feel like an adult, and think the things I have done are more adulty!

Or maybe we are actually all fully adult, and part of being fully adult is wondering if everyone else is more adult than you are....

I absolutely understand this. I am old and still scared of real adults!
Following with interest

Oh, this resonates with me. Definitely not an adult!

@Blackopal

I absolutely understand this. I am old and still scared of real adults! Following with interest

I'm so glad my ramblings made sense to some one!

@FindMeInTheSunshine

Oh, this resonates with me. Definitely not an adult!

Another one! great! come and join our un adult club!

Dammit, I'm 37 and was hoping to feel like an adult by 40.

This has really tickled me 😂 I can definitely relate. At 45 I definitely don’t feel like an adult for all the reasons you say. See also: car maintenance and getting up in time in the morning.
I’ve yet to master self control with a packet of biscuits or a bottle of wine either.

I tidy my house every night before bed in the anticipation that the police will knock on my door and demand a full inspection by 7.30z

It is anxiety rather than maturity that leads me to a clean house. My mum might see it too; she’s worse than the police.

I am in my late 50s and a lot of my life is totally winging it - much as it was in my 20s. I never look groomed, my house is never visitor ready. Icwork, pay my bills, am present for my DC, keep up relationships with friends and family, have some hobbies and interests. I bumble along ok but don't feel particularly grown up.

I’ve just realised my early-morning-police fear is derivative of my ambulance-men-seeing-mismatching-underwear fear. I only wear matching nude underwear in case I get hit by a car and the paramedics have to cut off my clothing and won’t treat me because I’m not well turned out…..

Come join me in the park where I still walk on that little curby pathy kerb trying to keep my balance before I fall to the pavement/death.

My grandma says she's always felt like she's just playing the part but she has no idea how to properly 'adult'.

She's 96 mind you.

This resonates with me. Especially feeling I and my house are scruffy. I do follow a lot of politics but end up feeling helpless and angry

65 and my son asks me to act my age, not my shoe size.

Result, as far as I am concerned.

Forever Young!

Me too, I'm late 40s. I still have a lot of the same values I had as a teen, veggie, political views etc.
My school friends are ladeees with v different opinions to the ones we used to share. I missed the adult boat somehow.

Damn I’m 50 next month and still don’t have the hang of it. Always feel everyone else is doing it better than I am

I thought I'd get the feeling when I got married, I didn't. Then when I had my kid, I didn't. I was hopeful that when I'm 30 (I'm 28) it would, but after reading this... maybe we genuinely all feel like that and just continuously try to find more adult adults to do the adult things haha.

I am 50, and clicked on this thread in the hopes that someone would have posted the secret of how to be adult.

Probably all the proper adults aren’t wasting their evenings on mumsnet. They’re writing reports to get ahead at work, or sorting out their budget, or some such.

37 and definitely not an adult. DP is 40 and less adulty than me.

I'm 46 and still not together.

Thankfully I'm married to someone who adults quite well, so he remembers adulty things I've forgotten. And has a dust allergy so keeps on top of the hoovering.

But actually I think as long as you have a job and direct debits and keep the drinking to a manageable level, you should give yourself a pat on the back for being functional.

I also decided I didn't want to look sophisticated. That helped a lot. I don't own a single blazer.

I do however own a black blouse for funerals. And a black dress for Christmas parties. So that's my compromise. The rest of the time I let my '90s flag fly and probably will until I'm in the coffin. Bury me in Stan Smiths!

Well I am only a few years from retiring and I just dont know how it has happened!!
As for being a grown-up... I am still waiting....

Join me in looking round for an adultier adult.

I honestly believe everyone is winging it. Just some people are better at pretending than others. Maybe it would be better if we all were more honest!!

Saying that, the most adulty adult I know has been that way since he was about 18 and fuck me he's boring, can suck the fun out of a room like a Henry hoover on speed.

Taking life so seriously must be incredibly tiresome. Imagine spending your whole life being serious and grown up and professional then dying and that being it. No thanks.

I'm in an airport or somewhere unfamiliar I always look for a more adulty adult.Im 41.

Oh I can and I do all the adulting things but right now I’d like someone to make me a warm drink and read me a bedtime story. Finding adulting alone lonely right now 😭