Adulting can be difficult. Paying bills, working, not sleeping enough, working, working, working….
That’s not to say there isn’t some enjoyable aspects of being a grown-up, but a lot of times, it can be unrelenting and difficult.
I feel lucky to have had both “Shop class” and “Home EC” when I was in junior high. I learned a bunch of skills that I’ve been able to apply to certain situations in adulthood.
I also took a typing class in high school that might be the most important skill I’ve ever learned. I can’t imagine being a “hunt & peck” kinda guy. The other class I took that really prepared me for adulting was economics. Learning about banking, balancing a checkbook, managing my money, etc. Hasn’t helped with my gambling problem, but it certainly helped me make sure my bills get paid on time.
If there was anything I could add to this list, it would be “dealing with insurance”. I LOATHE everything about insurance. And my brain has decided that we won’t allow any sort of education about insurance to change the way we feel. So, I pass all that stuff off onto the wife & let it be her problem.
Buzzfeed recently posted an article, “22 Adult Problems No One Prepared You For” and it’s pretty spot on. Some of the top problems include:
- Drifting away from friends.
This one REALLY sucks. I live halfway across the country from my close friends in New England, and because of that distance, along with the usual trappings of adulthood, we’ve drifted apart. When we get back together every few years, it’s like time froze…but being apart all these years is definitely a problem I wasn’t prepared to deal with. - The fact that holidays aren’t as fun.
This is a no-brainer. When you’re a kid, it’s all food & presents and fun! But as an adult, it’s all about dealing with family drama and going places you don’t really want to go. Spending time with people you barely know. Wearing stupid clothes you hate. Ugh. - You have to exercise to stay healthy.
Again, as a kid, I played baseball & basketball, swam in the lake all summer, rode my bike everywhere. And that was all just for fun! Now, as an adult, I don’t do any of that shit. And when I do exercise, it makes me miserable. - How dirty your house really is.
My mom would spend an entire weekend cleaning the house. She’d do all the sweeping, vacuum the entire house, mop the floors, clean the bathroom from top to bottom, do the laundry, and she still worked 40+ hours a week. Now, having to do all that stuff as an adult is the absolute worst! - Aches & pains.
Dude….you can sleep wrong. NOBODY tells you about this as a kid. NOBODY. You can go to bed, on your comfy, $2,500 mattress with your special gel/cooling pillow…and six hours later, you wake up with a massive knot in your neck. HOW?????? Nobody warns you how easy it is to injure yourself as a grown-up. - Getting excited by the stupidest shit.
I’ll never forget the BMX bike I got for my 12th birthday. It might be the greatest gift I’ve ever received. I LOVED that bike. I rode it everywhere. It made all the other kids in my neighborhood jealous. A neon-green Torker 2. Now, I get excited about a new device for my countertop. Like a new toaster or coffee maker. Yay.
There’s several other problems on their list, and you can see even more responses to the question of “what’s an adult problem that nobody prepared you for as a kid” by clicking here.
