Email
Print
Gasp! I think I'm a grown-up
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: February 12, 2009
Looking at me like I was both old and wise — ouch — a 23-year-old asked me this weekend when I'd started to feel like a grown-up.
I just stared at her, torn between laughter at the idea that someone, anyone, could think of me as a grown-up, and horror at the idea that this girl clearly did.
Yes, I'm the mother of two children, one of whom is now almost taller than me and wears high-top Reeboks the size of small boats. I own a home and a car and even a few stocks. I've been married, divorced, and married again.
But I still haven't figured out the magic formula for feeling "grown up."
Maybe the problem is that my expectations are too high. When I was a child, the grown-ups seemed to have it all figured out. They could open my juice box, tie my shoe, lift heavy things and put Band-aids on my boo-boos.
I never heard a grown-up wonder if they were going to be able to pay their bills or worry aloud about the things they couldn't fix. Grown-ups seemed invincible, and I couldn't wait to be one.
Grown-ups also seemed kind of boring. They never went outside to play (my family wasn't real big on exercise) and they definitely didn't appear to have as much fun with their friends.
While I've gotten to be a pro at juice box and Band-aid skills, I've yet to fully embrace the other parts of what being a grown-up has always involved for me.
I asked my son what he thought, and he looked at me like I was crazy. Of course you're a grown-up, his expression said. That's when it hit me — I am a grown-up, whether I feel like one or not. Scary thought.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
