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 was teaching at 21 and married before I was 22. By 22 we had a mortgage.

I'm currently 22!
I have a house, a son and I'm just finishing university a couple of years behind other people my age.

I've always been mature for my age, I tend to get on with people closer to 30 than 22 and often get told I'm old fashioned
I'm really interested to see how I feel about myself at this age when I'm older, but currently I feel really good about myself and what I've achieved so far!

How, ninny? I was 22 when I started teaching after no gap years or anything. University then PGCE! I'm intrigued as to how you've done it so fast BTW!

I was working after dropping out of uni twice and having a gap year, saving to go back to uni. I was totally immature. I still am, I reckon I'm about 10 years behind myself. Being a grown up is over rated.

I was quite immature. Drunken nights out. Every penny spent on clothes and socialising. Still studying. No real focus on my future at that stage. I'm a rock of sense now though at 43

I had a mortgage and was working as senior admin- having started there at 18.

At 22 I moved to another city to study my master followed by a specialised postgraduate degree; I finished Uni when I was 25. I don't feel I was immature at 22, I guess I was my age: experiencing being independent for the first time, living away from my family, but also studying hard.

At 22 I had just started work as a doctor, lived with a flatmate in a nice rental, had been seeing my DP for a couple of years already and felt a lot more grown-up than my peers

However 7 years on my peers have hurtled on with their lives and I'm still plugging away at mad shifts, though DP and I live together we bought a house and had to move to a more expensive city so feel a lot poorer than I did then!

rethinks life

I had a professional job but was an emotional fuckwit in a terrible relationship. Turned it around a bit by 24 and have been relatively happy ever since!

I am 22 and have 7 mo DD. I think I am pretty mature and level headed and have been for quite a long time certainly since my late teens. I have always had significantly older friends and have often found it difficult to find common ground with my peers, never wanted to get involved with silly dramas and social media crap. Have never really been a drinker, I dabbled with drugs for a while but hedonism has never been my thing, I am totally content and the happiest I have ever been as a SAHM.

I find it pretty offensive when people like bibbity make negative comments about younger mums, it achieves nothing but making someone else feel bad and being older does not make you a better or more fit mother just a socially normative one. People develop and mature at different rates, yes the 22 year olds drinking every night aren't going to make good mothers at that point in their life but many of us are ready for the challenges of motherhood at a younger age and I think my relative youth is in my favour. I always think it's strange that people seem to think that having packed in more years of selfish living before having kids will make you a better mum, having ten years of doing what you wanted to do doesn't make you better equipped to be selfless for your dc. Not all young people are selfish and egocentric, and not all older people are paragons of motherly virtue. To not recognise that different people have different life experiences is very naive and immature

22 is quite late for a first time job.

Not for doctors, lawyers, etc.

You expect them qualified and working at 16?

Married already by 22, would have been in first year of my masters degree. No kids then though.

I had my job qualification, had a job, was married and had Dd then!

At 22 I got married We'd been together since 16, got our first rented flat at 19 and bought our first flat at 21. This was in the late 1990's. I often wonder what life would be like as a young couple nowadays, even more difficult I would imagine.

I find it pretty offensive when people like bibbity make negative comments about younger mums

Get used to it

Was in the Police Force dealing with deaths, accidents and other people's problems. Unfortunately couldn't deal with my own problems. Took me another year to leave my abusive husband.

I was a shop manager, married and pregnant so surprisingly grown up looking back.

I was married, had a mortgage and had a very high pressure job. I think I was pretty grown up.

Still married (same man), DCs, very relaxed easy job, and mortgage all done with now and I don't feel quite so grown up anymore as I'm back to having fun...

Monday to Friday I was really mature - good job, good salary, small mortgage, very sensible. Friday from 7pm to Sunday night - out drinking, clubbing and generally having fun. So 50:50 for me. It was a great time.

I had finished my four year degree and had started working as a research assistant.

I was still at home with my parents, so not fully grown up, I suppose.

I was out with the girls most weekends, lived with my dad (who was unwell), my sister and my niece. Had a full time job as a nursery nurse. Now I'm 31 single parent with a 4 yo dd, renting, working part time. I have a new boyfriend (18 months) and we haven't discussed living together- but I love having him and also my own space.

Once again - Niki, I had a second post afterwards saying that I think 22 is a late age to be entering employment if you've never, ever had any job before. I think having a part time job is vital for a healthy cv/learning curve in work. I count part time jobs as work experience.

Married three years with a promising career and a mortgage. Shortly after DH became disabled so the career went, the mortgage went and I've been his carer ever since.

I was in my first job after university and was definitely a "grown up". I did go out a lot and probably drank too much overall but I'd do that now if I didn't have children and wasn't concerned about health risks. I certainly don't think I was less mature and "sensible" then than I am now at 50.

Still a student. Doing a degree that was not compatible with part time paid employment. All my holidays were spent on extra mural rotations and my course hours were 8-5 daily plus studying so no term time job options . My first paid job, I must have been nearly 24. But that is what a professional/vocational degree gets you.

I have worked full time ever since, longest career break was 8 months mat leave with DS2. I only took 4 months with DS1. So my CV is pretty filled without working bar jobs as a student.