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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask how 'grown up' you were aged 22?

339 replies

Soyamilkisniceintea · 30/04/2017 19:01

I started my first job at 22 and looking back, I was really, really immature Blush

What were you like at 22?

OP posts:
PNGirl · 30/04/2017 19:45

I started the year finishing my 4-year degree, at the same time my boyfriend was finishing his. We both worked part time at the same place.

About a month before I turned 23 we graduated, got engaged, and moved into a rented flat 300 miles south. I started a job and I'm still at the company 10 years on. At 23 we bought our first house.

So fairly mature I guess? Sensible at least.

buggerthebotox · 30/04/2017 19:45

I was quite grown up, in a way. I had a teaching job, had met DP, had moved in with him. He had a -gasp- mortgage, which was quite usual in those days. He was 20!

Mrsmadevans · 30/04/2017 19:46

Been married a year, had a mortgage on our first house, finishing my nursing training and got a job.

lastqueenofscotland · 30/04/2017 19:46

25 now but at 22 I was living the dream in Hong Kong living off expensive wine and getting smashed every night. I'm sure I went several days at a time without solid food often but it was sublime.

Wouldn't have missed that to settle down at 20 for the world.

Soyamilkisniceintea · 30/04/2017 19:46

The weird thing is I think that losing my parents young made me MORE immature in some ways. Because I hadn't had a proper adolescence ?

OP posts:
PNGirl · 30/04/2017 19:46

I spent the year I was 21 studying abroad and living alone. I think I got my partying done then.

Marmalade85 · 30/04/2017 19:47

I was at uni and a weirdo.

TinselTwins · 30/04/2017 19:47

pretty immature.

Had my first post grad job, would shop after payday (not for food!) and not look at price tags etc. Took out all the credit cards and loans I was offered.

Was a bit shit at my job TBH

Had some shitty "friends"

DramaAlpaca · 30/04/2017 19:47

I'd recently graduated, had moved to a big city by myself and started my first proper job and I thought I was so grown up and knew it all. I really wasn't & I didn't, I was young & daft and didn't have a clue. Thankfully I'd grown up a lot more by my mid-twenties, I think meeting my very sensible now DH helped a lot.

TittyGolightly · 30/04/2017 19:47

I'd been working for 7 years and had owned a house for 3 years. A year later I was responsible for a team of 12 and a £4bn budget.

gamerwidow · 30/04/2017 19:48

At 22 i'd finished just finished University and started my first proper job but I'd been living permanently out of the family home since 19 and I'd worked at least 20 hours/week since the age of 16 so I was used to looking after myself and managing my own finances.

I think I was quite mature. I was living a young person's life style so most of my money went on socialising, clothes and holidays but I was never in debt and paid all my bills and had started a pension so was quite sensible too.

I also had to provide quite a lot of emotional support to my mum at that age because my DSF (who had raised me and my Dsis) passed away when I was 19 and my DM had breast cancer when I was in my teens so I had to grow up quite quickly anyway.

ginflumpsandzebraprint · 30/04/2017 19:48

Yup, married, mortgage with baby and doing degree course whilst working and about to find out about baby number 2 they were not fun times !

ForalltheSaints · 30/04/2017 19:49

Not very- indeed certain things I did or thought at that age make me shudder.

OhTheRoses · 30/04/2017 19:50

Too grown up with hindsight. Good job in the City. Had bought a flat at 21 largely for security as my parents had divorced twice each in the previous 8/9 years and I had no proper home.

Paying a mortgage, holding down a job, paying the bills, budgeting. Very alone in spite of a reasonable social life.

Not what I want for my DC, one of whom is 22 and finishing uni soon. I want them to soar, safe in the knowledge they will always have a family home and mum and dad, regardless.

LittleWingSoul · 30/04/2017 19:50

Had DD at 22 and was in a DV relationship. Was pretty immature in the sense that I'd still been an immature git pretty much until the point of birth. Having a child changed me in so many ways, made me a better person. I don't think my DH would have fallen for me had he known me pre-children!

TinselTwins · 30/04/2017 19:51

I think univesity delays your maturity, which IMO isn't a bad thing I think there are a lot of benefits to having a bit longer as a student before you have to be a "real" adult. I'm glad I wasn't thinking about mortgages and school runs too soon, there's enough time for that!

Tiptoethr0ughthetulips · 30/04/2017 19:51

I was in a stressful job, living with a friend and then on my own in hospital accommodation. I partied hard but was quite unhappy, overweight with low self esteem. Spent the vast majority of my wages on myself and didn't really appreciate the value of money.

mizu · 30/04/2017 19:52

Had just finished uni and got my 1st proper full time job as a school librarian! Had worked previously p/t in all sorts - pie factory, cola factory, Dorothy Perkins, b&b work.

At 22 I was very immature. Job was poorly paid. I then did a TEFL (paid for by then b/friend and went off to live abroad in various places for years. Kept me immature I think, not much responsibility, partying a lot, drinking a lot. Fantastic experiences though and I have no regrets.

However, I am now 44 and am looking to buy my 1st property - it's tough.

Chavelita · 30/04/2017 19:52

It was, Agent. I remember it with total pleasure! Even belting out Crazy/Moon River/Always a Woman to Me for the fiftieth time to a bunch of drunks where we lived was really beautiful and primitive-- and anything seemed possible. Grin

hiccupgirl · 30/04/2017 19:52

I was just finishing uni and starting my 1st (full time) job. I lived in a great house share and generally enjoyed having some disposable income after being very skint as a student.

Not very mature I think overall but then I sometimes don't feel particularly mature at 44 either.

Figgygal · 30/04/2017 19:53

Totally idiotic!!

Finished university moved back in with my parents decided fuck it and Moved 500 miles to live with a man I'd met the previous year when on holiday but Been married 10 years now and have 2 dcs so all worked out well.

I got my first job, went on holiday to Asia and was pretty pissed most of the year/rest of my 20's Grin

ShiningArmour · 30/04/2017 19:56

I had was pregnant with dc2 and living in Spain.

KeiraKnightleyActsWithHerTeeth · 30/04/2017 19:58

I was married with a 2 year old and in the middle of a medical degree so on paper quite grown up. I was very mature when it came to balancing things however I was very emotionally immature in my marriage.
I did my emotional growing up, so to speak, between the ages of 25 and 30.

selfishcrab · 30/04/2017 19:59

Living in a 2 bed apartment with 10 friends in Ibiza having the most fantastic time. Stayed 2 years.
Mature wasn't even a word I'd heard of!

purpleporpoise · 30/04/2017 20:00

Had been working a few years and bought my first house