January 19, 2011

When Are You Really A Grown Up?


I always wondered how you knew when you where really a grown up.  When I was a child, I figured a certain age made you a grown up.  Later in life I thought.....well, it's when you feel grown up.   Then I learned a grown up had lots of responsibilities.  Maybe that made you grown up.

I have now come to realize that, I don't know when I will be grown up.  They say you are the age you feel.  I always felt very young at heart but with an old soul.  This made it very confusing for me. 

A few months ago, I realized I was calling the girls at the check out counter at the local grocery store kids.  They where either girls that had just graduated high school or where about to.  Then I found myself calling some young mother at the library a kid with a kid.   I even found my self thinking that the 25 year old girls I know act so much like kids.  "They don't know anything about life yet" is what I thought.  "They will just have to learn through trial and error like the rest of us" was my next thought.  Oh my!!! Does that make me old!!!!

This is when it hit me.  These are the age groups I use to associate myself with as equal.  When did I start thinking of these people as kids?  I'm going to be 30 in two months.  Is that it?  No, I don't think so.  I think I am just figuring out that I am now a grown up.  When did it happen?  I'm not sure.  I think it just happened. 

Does anyone else feel this way?  Did being a grown up just sneak up on you?  I don't think it had anything to do with age.  I know people a good bit older than me with more kids than me, and they still didn't grow up yet.  What do you think?


6 comments:

  1. I don't know, I turned 53 on January 6 and am thinking that I won't be an actual grown up until around 80. LOL

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  2. I hope I'm not one of the ones you think still hasn't grown up...lol
    I like you think it just snuck up on me one day. I also think of the girls at the check out as kids.. I work with a few and at work they call me mom. I'm the mom of Krogers( the local grocery store where I live) is what I'm told.

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  3. Shaunice, you are so crazy! Of course I don't think of you as not yet grown up. LOL! I think it's funny that they call you Mom at Krogers. You are not the oldest one there, but you do care! Will sure thinks of you as another Mommy!

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  4. You know what did it for me, was when I was talking with a group of teenagers, feeling like I was one of them and laughing and chatting etc, when one of the teenagers said something disrepectful about their parents. Another teenager in the group said, "John!!! Don't say that in front of her!!!" Then I knew that I was one of the grown ups.

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  5. I miss him already. It's time for another visit.

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  6. I don't think I'm a grown up. A crabby old lady, perhaps, but grown up never.

    I live with a man who acts like a 12 year old boy. That keeps me on my toes and keeps me from being a grown up.

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