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Original poster

Things we assume about adulthood as children

77 replies

WomanStanleyWoman2 · 03/03/2023 15:48

Clearing some stuff out of my parents’ house recently, I found some stories I wrote when I was about 11 (I loved writing stories as a child). These were all set in what was then the future, with me as an adult. Virtually every character in the story was based one of my school friends at the time; we were all still close as adults (to the point that I’d invented marriages between us).

It struck me that, at that age, it hadn’t really occurred to me that childhood friendships wouldn’t necessarily survive into adulthood. This was probably quite an extreme example - I probably knew even then that I wouldn’t have the exact same circle of friends all my life - but the idea that my best friends would disappear from my life just wouldn’t have entered my head.

It also got me thinking about where I’d expected to live as an adult. From childhood I had a “dream house” - this cottagey-looking bungalow just around the corner. I don’t think I quite gave up on the idea until my teens! Now, the thought of living within five - ten minutes walk of where I grew up just feels stifling, but as a child it seemed natural.

So, just for fun, what did your dream adulthood look like compared to the reality?

OP posts:
maddiemookins16mum · 03/03/2023 15:56

I always assumed we’d sit round the table and have a fully cooked breakfast with a checkered table cloth and a big pot of tea. EVERY DAY.

It turns out we eat breakfast on the go (occasionally at the breakfast counter) but more often than not I’m eating a bowel of Yoghurt and drying my hair or munching toast as I load the washing machine.

maddiemookins16mum · 03/03/2023 15:56

Bowl 🤣

Chamenagered · 03/03/2023 15:57

I think I saw adults as very boring, but confident, not scared of anything, and in control. I was very shy so thought it would be nice to go through life not fazed by anything. Sadly, it wasn't true!

DustyLee123 · 03/03/2023 15:57

I assumed my mum would become an old lady, she didn’t.

MargaretThursday · 03/03/2023 16:05

Chamenagered · 03/03/2023 15:57

I think I saw adults as very boring, but confident, not scared of anything, and in control. I was very shy so thought it would be nice to go through life not fazed by anything. Sadly, it wasn't true!

Me too. Confident, know exactly what to do in any circumstance and in control of everything.
I'm still waiting for that to happen.

Original poster
WomanStanleyWoman2 · 03/03/2023 16:05

maddiemookins16mum · 03/03/2023 15:56

I always assumed we’d sit round the table and have a fully cooked breakfast with a checkered table cloth and a big pot of tea. EVERY DAY.

It turns out we eat breakfast on the go (occasionally at the breakfast counter) but more often than not I’m eating a bowel of Yoghurt and drying my hair or munching toast as I load the washing machine.

That reminds me - I also had a live-in cook in my story! The reality is I won’t even order Deliveroo without a discount code 😆

OP posts:
Riverlee · 03/03/2023 16:06

I thought by the age of twenty five, you would be married, live in a house, and possibly have a child or two. Ie. You would be a fully fledged adult.

Riverlee · 03/03/2023 16:07

I also thought all adults were sorted in life.

Dartmoorcheffy · 03/03/2023 16:08

I thought life would be easy. How wrong I was.

Toddlerteaplease · 03/03/2023 16:09

We were all going to live together in a big house. Hell will freeze over before I do that. Though we all get on very well!

Toddlerteaplease · 03/03/2023 16:10

That I'd get married and have two children. That's not happed. 😰

DianePemberley · 03/03/2023 16:15

I thought I'd have loads of money to buy all the books in the world, instead of saving my pennies for the latest new release in the famous five series.

I might have more money nowadays but seem to find the time to read any books. I was going to have a corner library, with shelves all the way round and up to the high ceiling, with a ladder on wheels attached to the top shelf so I could select my next read. Big windows, sun streaming in, green leather wingback chair, feet tucked in under my bun, sleeping cat on my lap and dog by the chair legs.
One day....when I'm a proper grown up.

RubiesandRose · 03/03/2023 16:20

I assumed all parents were good people and loved their children and therefore anyone who was a mum or dad could be trusted.

It was only as I got older and in my teens that I realised this wasn't true and many children had awful childhoods with abusive parents. I appreciate now what a protected childhood I had to think that in the first place.

beguilingeyes · 03/03/2023 16:21

I thought that the grown-ups and people in charge knew what they were doing.
If only.

TheYearOfSmallThings · 03/03/2023 16:29

I was going to drive an old gold Ford Granada, go to the roller disco every weekend, but still go to mass on Sunday - I would probably be the main singer in the church folk group, actually. I would have big gold hoop earrings, red nails, twins... sometimes. The twins came and went because even in my imagination they seemed like a lot of work.

I would have a dog like the Dulux dog, a mobile home in Brittas bay, play squash, buy ready made salad and pâté in Superquinn, live in a house like the Cosby show, and have a husband whose face and personality changed so often all I am left with is an image of Jonathan Hart from Hart to Hart Grin

MyMachineAndMe · 03/03/2023 16:31

I used to think that every adult went to a big building labeled WORK and they were given money before being allowed home again.

Dalekjastninerels · 03/03/2023 16:42

That I could do exactly as I liked. whenever I liked.

Only if I win lotto😀

Bettyboop3 · 03/03/2023 16:42

I thought i would be able to have as many animals as i liked but i hasn't factored in a husband's opinion on that!

RunTowardsTheLight · 03/03/2023 16:43

At one point in my childhood I wanted seven kids.

Vegansausagevole · 03/03/2023 16:45

If I had to do things that I didn’t really like, terrible things like have to go to school, do homework or help with clearing the table after dinner life seemed so hard. I thought that when I was grown up I would get to choose what I wanted to do and no one could make me do anything. Ha! Working full time for a wage to keep a roof over my head, paying bills for things that I didn’t even want ( not sweets or comics), having to cook food every day, raising kids etc etc being a grown up sucks!

Dalekjastninerels · 03/03/2023 16:46

RunTowardsTheLight · 03/03/2023 16:43

At one point in my childhood I wanted seven kids.

I wanted one for each letter of the alphabet, named alphabetically.

EarringsandLipstick · 03/03/2023 16:47

I assumed I'd have lots of money, able to afford what I wanted.

Other dreams were more modest - as a bookworm, I'd a vision of myself as some kind of 1950s-style spinster writer, living in a small but perfect cottage, and having a peaceful ordered existence. I was also absolutely certain I'd meet my husband at university (I did) and it would be a Great Romance (it wasn't).

I had no idea how hard and working grown up life was (and thank goodness I didn't!)

80sMum · 03/03/2023 16:52

Riverlee · 03/03/2023 16:06

I thought by the age of twenty five, you would be married, live in a house, and possibly have a child or two. Ie. You would be a fully fledged adult.

That was me. At 25, I'd been married and had a mortgage for 5 years and had given birth to 4 children. With hindsight, I don't particularly recommend it! A bit too young, I think. And, sadly, I don't think many people nowadays would be able to get a mortgage at the ages of 22 and 19, like DH and I did.

EarringsandLipstick · 03/03/2023 16:54

@80sMum it sounds lovely - tho I'm sure was hard too. Are you & DH still together? ❤️

Kennykenkencat · 03/03/2023 17:06

I wanted to live in London. I also wanted a big house in Surrey. One with land so I could have horses and sheep and chickens and peacocks and lots of cats and dogs.
(Really want alpacas and llama too)
Also wanted to have houses around the world to go on holiday to.

I moved to London in my teens and apart from a stint in the countryside (worse time of my life) I am still here, all be at the moment just on the edges.
I have cats. Not got my Surrey mansion yet and looking at going to find our first holiday home.

Might have to have a rethink on the Surrey mansion after discovering Astrocartography