Today’s Daily Prompt asks when was the first time I felt like like a grown up (if ever)?
This DP is apropos for me since I’m less than 15 hours from turning the page on my 30’s. I’ll miss you 30’s, not as much as my 20s, but I’ll miss you.
Alas, lamenting lost love for past decades is going to come in a subsequent post devoted solely to my thoughts about turning 40.
I haven’t decided how I feel about it yet, so it’s not written or even been considered.
In fact, I may get too drunk tonight and into my birthday to ever get around to writing that particular post, so don’t hold me to it.
In light of that last sentence, my response to the DP question has to be never………I’ve never really felt like a grown up.
I’ve wanted to, and even expected that I’d just feel grown up at some point.
I thought turning 21 would cause me to feel all grown up, but it actually retarded my mental development because I no longer had to sneak beers into my system behind closed doors. I was free to drink whenever and wherever I wished, and I did so.
I worked as a bartender at 21 and slid in nicely with the good timin’ folks in the restaurant industry. Good Lord, those people work hard and boy, they play hard too!
I met my wife back then, so the liver abuse was completely worth it! Still, I was out partying too much to ever feel like I was a grown up.
Around that same time, I managed to graduate from college and got myself a job with beer giant Anheuser-Busch. The job was in the Dallas/Forth Worth area, so I had to move 900 miles from where I grew up. Surely, this would force me to feel all grown up!
Not so much…Neither the degree or the job did the trick.
I was initially relieved to have a new job, in part because it meant I could keep better hours and quit partying so much. Boy was I wrong about that.
Beer industry people are worse than restaurant people! They drink for a living and then drink some more when they “get off work”!
Part of my job was to schmooze people in bars and buy drinks for young adult beer consumers.
Well, that entailed drinking with those people, right?! It really did, actually!
All that hanging out in bars and drinking with my backwoods boss, Johnny Earl, was almost more than I could handle. My body was taking some serious abuse and I never felt like a grown up during that first job out of college.
I didn’t feel like a grown up toiling in the bars of North Texas, I wasn’t satisfied professionally, and mostly, I missed my girlfriend (wife), so in my mid 20’s I moved back to the midwest and became a police officer.
Strapping on a bullet proof vest and carrying a firearm to interact with the fine citizens of what has been falsely labeled the most dangerous city in the country more than once, AND being old enough to rent a car would surely make me feel like a big boy all grown up, yes??
No.
This may be shocking, but I deal with most things in my life with sarcasm and humor. My job is no different.
There are parents of terminally sick kids out here in blog land with hilarious blogs about the challenges facing their families. They use humor to cope with difficult circumstances. I love that. It’s not for everyone, but it works for many.
That’s how I was/am as a police officer. I’ve been told countless times that I’m not like regular or usual or other police officers. I don’t know what that means, but I always assumed it was a compliment. You can treat people with respect and dignity and still be yourself, even if yourself (myself?) is steeped in humor and sarcasm.
While it works for me on the job, sarcasm and humor admittedly does not convey “grown up” in most circles.
But wait, KIDS! You have a wife and kids now, right?!
I do, yes.
And just like turning 21, having kids has retarded my ability to feel grown up even more.
With kids, instead of watching the History Channel and PBS shows, now I like to watch Dora and Spongebob and oh look, a Blue’s Clue, right there! Haha, I found it before you did, Cdawg!
I also like to:
Eat Cookie Crisp with them,
We wrestle on the floor,
We play video games,
We play legos,
I drink chocolate milk whenever I want,
We eat oreos – double stuffed!
I coach tball so I can play ball with lots of kids,
I like to ride my bike,
We shoot nerf guns at each other, and
I like to color on the place mats in restaurants again!
You do that without a kid at the table and people come up and pat you on the head and say “look at you, eating out like a big boy” like you’re “special” or something.
Having kids has allowed me to be the kid I’ve always enjoyed being, without feeling the judgement and guilt from a stick in the butthole society. Ha, butthole is a funny word, isn’t it??
While I’ll admit to not ever feeling grown up, I’d like to state for the record, that I don’t equate that to being immature.
An immature person, it seems to me, acts unlike a grown up, but does so to the detriment of his responsibilities.
I don’t do that. Well, not most of the time…
We play when it’s time to play, but the kids are in bed by 8 during the week and they eat a semi-healthy dinner before they get those Oreos. And it’s not every night that they’re eating cookies!
We play games after homework and we take turns and share.
So while I may not feel grown up, I guess I do have some grown up instincts that I must acknowledge. I don’t feel as though I’m the fun parent and my wife is the disciplinarian. We both discipline and we’re both on the same page with most decisions.
Don’t mistake my jackassery for immaturity or total irresponsibility. A little bit, yes, but not TOTAL.
I’m a kid when I can be a kid and I’ll grow up when I’m ready.
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Daily Prompt: when was the first time I felt like a grown up (if ever)?
Haha, love this post! I’m 34 and I don’t feel grown up at all. Have a great birthday 🙂
Thank you! Growing up seems overrated, and since I’m happy as I am, I think I’ll stick to it!
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Happy Early Birthday Don!!!
Thank you, Susan! Feel free to buy me a beer.
You are the perfect amount of grown up. AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 🙂
Ha, damn straight I am! Thank you very much and thanks again for the shout out!
Had I known it was your birthday I would’ve waxed poetic but I didn’t realize it til after I posted, and frankly I’m too bloody lazy to go edit it. 🙂
Well almost birthday…. 🙂
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I only feel like a grown up when I stop and think, “Crap! I have 3 kids!!” You sound like a fun dad. 🙂
Three kids is sort of in your face hard evidence of your age, I know that too! Lol.
Truth!
And yes, I’m fun as the day with all three kids in the house is long.
Well, Happy Birthday Don 🙂 I can say for myself, I started feeling grown-up when I turned 40. I still haven’t decided if that is a good thing or not, lol.
Oh no, well I hope that grown up feeling passes me by, 40 or not! Thank you!
Feeling and acting though are 2 different things 😉
LOVE THIS POST! Yes, I’m yelling, don’t you judge me. 😉
I feel like a grown up that will never grow up. There, I said it.
Am I responsible adult who is mature and rational on the surface? Yes. Are my favorite “adult” activities the same that I enjoyed in High School and College? Yes. When cooking together, do my husband and I have food fights? Absolutely. Do I still rock hoodies and Chuck Taylor’s in my thirties? You better believe it.
I will never -ever- be that mom on the playground in grown up clothes babbling on about the state of affairs in the country. No thanks, I’m out. 😉 I think growing up is overrated and boring and as long as you live a life that is balanced and happy, that being a “quintessential” adult is unnecessary (though ask me again when my son is older and starts saying things like, “Ugh, you’re so immature, Mom!”).
I’m in NO position to judge anyone. Embarrassing your son by being immature is your right. No, duty!
I’m 48 and a number never made me feel like a grown up. The first time I recall feeling like a real grown-up was making orthodontia decisions for one of my kids. My kids’ medical decisions made me feel like a grown up. Other than that, I’m an old lady with a giant zit on my face who swears too much.
My wife is the teeth master in our house, so I’ll be ok!
Happy Birthday! I think this line was great and very true – “An immature person, it seems to me, acts unlike a grown up, but does so to the detriment of his responsibilities.”
Thanks! Every now and then I manage to pull something out of my ass that passes for other than juvenile ranting! I appreciate your comments!
🙂 lol – Thank you for the add, I appreciate that. I don’t post a lot, so you’ll probably see me over here most of the time.
You have what looks like one of those intelligent blogs that I’ll have to read when I don’t have kids around to understand! lol. So maybe in 12 years!
lol it must have been my top ten hot balding men post that clued you in 🙂
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I always ask for the crayons when we go out to eat. There is one local restaurant that covers their tables in elegant black table clothes, then they give you white chalk to color on them. It is so much fun. I keep saying I am going to go and get a black table cloth for my home. But there is something about getting the chance to go out and act silly and YOUNG. I will always live in never, never land with the lost boys.
And now, as a new Yaya (grandma), I have a new generation to puddle stomp with. PS: I carry bubbles with me wherever I go, one never knows when you will need to make someone smile. And bubbles seem to do the trick.
Juju