To ask what's a small joy of being an adult you didn't expect?

[pandarific]

Not at all to dismiss the hard times being had by people on the companion thread, but so we all don't end up with Monday-itis... what are some small joys you have discovered come with being an adult?

Some of mine are:

• We have a tea cupboard. It is a little skinny cupboard not much good for anything else and houses all teas, coffees, cocoa making things etc. It is organised not by category but by frequency of use, and it gives me a little burst of pleasure every time I open it.
• I worked out why our washer dryer was shrinking and felting everything in sight BY MYSELF, with the manual, determination, and extended experimentation. I was so overjoyed I told our mutual friend who looked at me like ... but I do a lot of laundry.
• Having pets. The picture attached was the morning after an eye watering emergency vet bill... FFS. But look at his little face!
• Haggling - and the satisfaction of a good deal well done. Channelling Del Boy gives me immense joy, especially when the other party is a fellow Del Boy and you can have a bit of fun with it.
• The slow realisation that I can actually make my own decisions without anyone my mother needing to approve. And that I don't need to be a Nice Girl all the time.

Reading all these has made me realise that I’m not taking full benefit out of being a grown up. (60+). I still feel the need to have a very clean house if anyone is coming round, and I still see too much of people I don’t really like. Have got into the position of meeting up with one couple I don’t like every couple of weeks in order to play cards. Am now determined to do something about it. On the plus side, I eat and enjoy a lot of chocolate.

One unexpected bonus of getting older (rather than just being an adult) is that my confidence seems to have increased in direct inverse proportion to my looks fading.

Totally agree with this, morningconstitutional2017!

A couple of days ago I was introduced to two women at a training course - one ignored my greeting altogether, whispered in her friend's ear and the two of them turned and left me standing alone without even saying a word to me!

At one time, this would have left me devastated and heartbroken, but all I thought, after my flabbergasted had been momentarily gasted, was "How bloody RUDE!" - and then it struck me as hilarious! These were women in their fifties, at a C of E training day for children's ministry (so presumably at least pretend to live by a Christian ethos) and they acted like a couple of bitchy five-year-olds.

I've lost no sleep over them, but at one time I would have been so humiliated I would have sat and cried.

I would love to go back in time and proudly tell my maths teacher that I have never needed to know the area of a bloody cylinder in the 30 years since we last met

AndI would like to say to the ghost of Mrs Bryce (she'l have been giving Satan an earful for many a year by now, I think)

I'VE NEVER NEEDED ALGEBRA. I TOLD YOU I WOULDN'T!

*flabber had been momentarily gasted, not my flabbergasted had been momentarily gasted

I'm in love with all of your cats (just don't tell my dog I said that!)

Being able to buy funky gym kit and wear weather-appropriate clothing for exercise! That is a win for me.

I'd sum it up as freedom to mostly do what I want when I want.

I can decide where I live, when I go out or stay in, what to watch on TV, what to see at the cinema, what to have on my walls, what to eat etc.

I really want to know what the last poster said now.