Growing up takes a lot more than just physically maturing. Society expects adults to act a certain way as they get older, and meeting these expectations is a sign you’re embracing adulthood. Here are 18 things we all stopped doing because it was time to ‘grow up.’
Pulling All-Nighters
Staying up all night to party, game, or hang out alone at home is easy when we’re young. However, the older you get, the more you appreciate a good night’s sleep. Grown adults usually only pull all-nighters when they’re working late shifts or have newborn babies.
Following Fashion Trends
Fashion trends are constantly changing, but the older you get, the less you care about them. Growing up means saving money, not splurging it on new clothes every few months. You can still honor your personality through your clothing while prioritizing comfort, but passing trends won’t control your style.
Eating Junk Food
Many young people live on junk food, but it doesn’t provide a sustainable diet for grown adults. Modern Age warns that regularly consuming processed fast food can lead to diseases that shorten your lifespan. By choosing a better diet, you’re choosing your health, which is the responsible thing to do.
Drinking Excessively
Excessively drinking alcohol is most often associated with young adults for a reason. Late nights and hangovers the day after making it difficult to go to work, run errands, and look after your family, so you’ll know you’ve grown up when you see yourself turning alcohol down more often than not.
Being Careless With Money
It’s easy to fritter money away when you start working and don’t know any better, but fully-fledged adults understand the importance of saving. They stop being careless with money when they realize they need to pay mortgages, bills, car payments, and insurance. Having savings is the smartest thing an adult can do.
Taking Unnecessary Risks
Taking risks might seem exciting when you’re young, but growing out of reckless behavior is essential for becoming a functioning adult. While taking necessary risks, like accepting a new job offer, can pay off, risking your livelihood isn’t worth it to most adults because they’ve matured since their youth.
Neglecting Chores
Chores are a huge source of boredom when we’re young, so you’ll know you’ve grown up when you start enjoying housework. Psych Central lists cooking, managing finances, and doing laundry as examples of ‘adulting,’ and you must be able to do them if you want to function independently as an adult.
Going Out Every Day
Staying in is the new going out for many adults, even those as young as 25. Going out every day is expensive and exhausting, and many mature adults prefer relaxing at home instead. Staying in doesn’t mean doing nothing, either; it gives you more time to spend with family and on hobbies.
Avoiding Politics
Politics are polarizing, and they’re too tiresome for many young people. However, as you mature, you recognize how important it is to be up-to-date on political developments because they have the potential to affect your life. Adults can’t afford to feign ignorance of politics anymore.
Throwing Food Away
Wasting food is terrible at any age, but it’s only once you mature that you realize how bad it is. Not only are you creating waste when many can’t afford to eat, but you’re quite literally throwing money in the garbage.
Regularly Seeing Friends
Not seeing your friends as often as you’d like is tough, but it’s a sad part of growing up. When you’ve all got your own careers, families, households, and responsibilities, making time to meet up with friends is difficult. As a result, you’ll cherish any time you spend together even more.
Not Taking Responsibility
One of the most significant milestones of adulthood is taking responsibility for yourself. MentalHelp.net cites this as a turning point for becoming an adult, as it gives you greater control of your actions and how you feel, which is empowering. Embracing a mature mindset helps you grow up and make better decisions.
Binge-Watching Television
Some television shows beg to be binged, but fully-fledged grown-ups often realize they don’t have the time for it. They might only watch an episode per night, and they’ll avoid staying up until 3 am to finish a show. Some adults prefer dragging shows out so they have something to look forward to watching.
Pulling a Sickie
Anyone who says they’ve never pulled a sickie is lying, but part of growing up is realizing you can’t afford to do that anymore. Whether it’s needing the money or wanting to maintain a routine, going to work every day is a mark of emotional maturity.
Sleeping In
Any adult would love the idea of sleeping in, but it’s rare that happens unless they’ve got a day off and no other responsibilities. After you grow up, you realize how few hours there are in a day, especially if you have children, so you’ve got to wake up early to get everything done.
Traveling Frequently
Traveling is one of the best ways to broaden your cultural horizons, but the older you get, the more you realize you can’t always go on vacation. Frequent traveling is pricey, tiring, and requires time off work, which most adults simply cannot afford.
Completing Passion Projects
Passion projects are things we do purely because we enjoy them, but we often sacrifice them in favor of more practical endeavors as we age. Busy adults simply don’t have the time to spend hours every day on hobbies, and being able to give up some of them is a sign of growth.
Trying to Be Cool
Last but not least, the older you become, the more you realize that only emotionally immature people put on personas. According to Psychology Today, living an empowered life means caring more about ourselves than what others think. Part of growing up is growing out of the idea that we need to be cool in order to belong.
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