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

[Soyamilkisniceintea]

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

What were you like at 22?

I left home a week after turning 16, so at 22 I'd been working full time and paying rent/bills for 6 years. I was very boring grown up and that makes me sad now. I don't feel like I was ever naive or care free. Embrace the immaturity while you can!

If you've already had children by the age of 22 then I'd say that's a sign of immaturity in itself!

Didn't take long, did it?

I'm very pleased with how life is going after becoming a mum at 19, as I suspect many others who became parents under the age of 22 are, and that's what matters :)

I was living away from home for the first time as I'd been unable to find a job in my home area. (I didn't go to uni). It was the early 80s and there was a lot of unemployment.

I surprised myself that year how good I was at managine my finances - was on a low wage and was sensible with the money that I did have coming in.

Otherwise, I was quite immature. Terrible at relationships and very much lacking emotional intelligence in general. Didn't take my job or my future very seriously either.

IT was 1988. My mother described me to her friends as a Yuppy. (For those too young, looking back that wasn't much of a compliment).
Was with DH, we owned our flat in London, worked bloody hard, hit the bar at 6pm on a Friday and paaartied. Life was fast.
Looking back now, that life seems very narrow. I wouldn't say we were immature, but as Londoners born and bred we never considered travelling beyond that year's holiday hotspot. We were born and raised, educated and worked, married and had our children in the same area till we were...(embarrassed smile)....46.

Then we ran away.

WeeBaby I think that made me more immature in a weird way.

At 22 I had been working 8 years. I also had a 1 yr old little boy.

I was as sensible as I am now.
Living with DH, about to buy our first house.
I was more optomistic - I thought, and hoped for a career but it thats never happened. It wasn't for the want of trying though!

I'm 22 now, still felt like a child a few months ago even though I have been in a five year relationship and saving for my first home. But now I'm pregnant and feeling a lot more grown up. It only takes one thing to change you

Make that 6 years, not 8

Op, I think saying I'm a judgemental cunt is less nice than what I said. But there. It's a public forum, people can say what they like within reason.

I'd graduated uni and was a year into a full time job and just bought my first house with my own money.
Very grown up but loved it and my own space.
Wouldn't change a thing.

RyanStartedTheFire Sun 30-Apr-17 19:08:24
22 is quite late for a first time job.

Not if you've been to university. Unless you count PT weekend, evening or summer jobs. I didn't start my first proper big job til I was 23y when I took on my first teaching job. Before that I'd had PT and temporary jobs only.

I have just turned 23,
Had my.first job at 17, went to college, been with dh for 4 years, rented our house for 3, and we're about to buy it.

But 22 is still very young, I tell my dh all the time (who is almost 10 years older than me) that just because he wants to stay in and go to sleep at 9, he had his fun so I'm going to have mine too!

Although 18-25 used to be the age many women got married and had children, my friends are more interested in their careers now. The youngest one of them had children was 24.

So don't worry, unless you regularly skip your job because you're hungover or you avoid responsibilities like looking after yourself, its okay if you're still living at home, not in a long term relationship, or in a first job!

Doing my Masters. Owned my own house (through inheritance). That year my then BF tried to kill me - strangulation until I blacked out. I tried to kill myself a year later. My bipolar hadn't been diagnosed, although I was very unwell and had my first psychotic episode that year. I'm amazed I survived. I've no idea if I was mature or not really.

Now married, kids, stable on medication and good career so very happy. It all definitely happened pretty late for me due to mental ill health, the DV stuff, and a bunch of other things. That doesn't bother me hugely now. I'm just pleased I got there.

I'm 23 so 22 was only a year ago for me. I was very immature, I cheated on my ex all the while going through dv. It was a very harrowing time to be honest.
I already had a child at this point and felt too young, I was working in fashion PR and felt quite grown up with having that job

Working ft in my second job (not counting waitressing/bar/shop work etc as a teen/student) and caring for my dm with cancer. They gave her 40% chance and with luck and amazing medicine she survived. My dad had died when I was a child.
I was with dh and he held me together. I was super mature in some ways but had little experience of life really as most of my time til then had been just working and caring.

Hula I said afterwards I meant part time/little jobs.

Looking back, I think I was so immature when I was 22 it almost makes me cringe!

Ah - hadn't read it all at the time.

I suspect most people when saying their first job at 22 or whatever are probably just meaning their first 'proper' job tbh.

I did work on and off during sixth form and university years but I didn't think to count temporary and PT ones in my original post earlier.

At 22 I finished uni, and rented a flat with some mates. I had a full time job, and spent the money on partying, holidays, festivals and great times. I had been seriously ill at 21, so a year later I wanted to enjoy my freedom!

I probably wasn't mature, but the thought of settling down at that age would have filled me with absolute horror. Now 10 years later I am married and have bought a house, hoping to start a family now.

I was married with a child, working full-time and caring for my mother who was dying of cancer.

At 22 I was in my last year at uni and living at home as was only in for 2 days a week and the rest of the time I was doing research, doing a teaching placement cos I thought I was going to apply for a PGCE and also working 20 hours a week. Not that grown up really

I took a gap year and then did a four year degree followed by a Masters, so I didn't start my first 'proper' job until I was nearly 25!

At 22 I was on a study abroad year. I was pretty sensible and into my studies though and quite grown-up in many ways. There were quite a few 18 and 19 year-olds in my hall of residence and I definitely felt that I'd outgrown many of the things they were into.

I'd got married and bought a house and was working in medicine. Fairly grown up.

I worked at M & S in college and I did bits of work at the hospital when at university. Also worked in a makeup factory and a fish shop in a market.