‘When did you realise you were grown up?’ – 17 moments when people felt the grim reality of adulthood kick in for good

According to the law, you’re an adult the minute you turn 18. However it often takes a lot longer for that message to sink in.

That’s because even though you’re paying adult fares and you can now legally do anything, it seems that the brain takes a little longer to catch up. In fact sometimes it takes decades. And we know this because TSQ_builder put the following question to r/AskUK:

‘When did you realise you were grown up?’

Here are the top answers from various stages of arrested development…

1.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever stop being surprised when someone looks to me to be the responsible adult in any situation.’
-Silvestris1

2.

‘I’m nearly 50, still not grown up. Not even slightly’
-Exact-Character313

3.

‘When I was walking out of the gate of sixth form on the way home and a kid bumped into me. Her mum said, “Watch out for that lady”.
Once you’re a “lady” to a kid, that’s it.’
-Namerakable

4.

‘I took my GF’s kid to a party and was being my usual jokey self with all the other ‘older people’ when I suddenly realised I was there in the capacity of a parent, and actually the same age as all these other parents.

‘I’d owned a house and was on my third car by that point, so it wasn’t like adulting was new to me, but that was my first real moment of realisation that I was ‘grown up’ now.’
-Boboshady

5.

‘I get humbled fast af when the cashier presses “visibly over 25” in the shop 😭😭😭😭’
-Big-Aside-7836

6.

‘At my work when kids are misbehaving they say “look stop messing that man from the shop is watching”. I am now the man from the shop 🥲’
-tylerlovatt

7.

‘I’m 56. Last night I was playing Mario Kart and smoking weed with my mate.’
-RubberyBallSacks

8.

‘When everyone wanted me to solve their problems’
-TruthReptile

9.

‘Jumped off a wall, knees hurt. Been downhill since then.’
-Minimum_Airline3657