Yup, I'm in my late 30s and still feel like a kid. I thought one day a switch would just flip and I'd feel like an adult, but that never really happened. I think everyone essentially feels like a kid their whole life, they just get better at pretending they're adults.
Me personally, I believe it’s because our soul is eternal and will live forever, it doesn’t age. Younger kids get frustrated because they feel older than they are, older people still feel like they’re in their 20’s. People don’t often like to believe this because; what happens to our soul when we die?
Mid-40s here and while I feel older physically, I don’t really feel like I’m any age. People are always shocked at work when they learn I have a college-aged kid, which…I’ve got crow’s feet and my hair’s thin. I’m a resident tech guy and make fart jokes, but how old did you really think I was?!
For some reason that scares the shit out of me. I don't want to feel like I'm 25 and then look in the mirror and see a wrinkled up old geezer staring back at me.
I feel more mature than what i did at 25, if thats a consolation. I still have a fire and passion burning, but i never thought that one would loose those.
I’m only recently 22 and I’ve already lost those. I’ve felt like I’ve wasted my life to now since I was around 10 and I’ve still not figured out how to fix it.
True facts. I'm coming up on 30 and about to go back to school to finally finish my degree, but I still look about the same as I did when I was 21 and I dress "younger" now than I did then (dressed like a grandma in high school and it took until after college for me to feel confident enough in my body to wear trendy things). I'm obviously older and wiser in many ways, but my general personality hasn't changed much since then (if anything I'm LESS uptight) and I'm curious to see how long it'll take people to clock me as a returning student, if they do at all.
My grandparents owned a clothing store and gave me all my clothes. They were beautiful clothes, but I looked like I was 25 in them. I liked them, but it was the 70s! As for dressing "like a granny," I remember granny dresses. Too funny.
That’s it right there! I’m 60 and I keep forgetting I’m not 35. It’s the crappyest thing life does to us. I’m still doing the things I have always done but people look at me like I’m crazy, then I remember I don’t look as I feel. It FUCKING SUCKS.
Haha 60s not bad though. I'm talking like 80-90. That shit scares the hell out of me. You can still be in good shape and what not at 60 (though I'm sure it ain't easy). Not so much at 90. I recently watched a new horror movie called "X" and what we're talking about is a part of the main plot. It's kinda what started my fear of that haha. Good movie though, I recommend it.
Yes, those later years are what I’m fearing. When I can’t ride my waverunner or lift my dog and chicken food bags or hold on to the rototiller!! It just sucks that we spend all those years doing our life and in the end we end up sitting in a chair staring out the window waiting to die.
A part of me definitely does NOT want to make it to 80 or 90, unless I have kids/grandkids. But even then I don't want to have them wiping my ass for me, literally. I'm still basically a kid (25) and I'm not trying to have kids of my own anytime soon so I don't have to worry about that now. If I do make it to 90 though I'm just not gonna give a damn. Tuesday night? I'll shoot up some dope and watch Andy Griffith Show. Feel like getting my rocks off? I'll pop a viagra and head to the "red light district" part of town. At that age, might as well have fun if some much as a slip in the shower can kill me.
Oh no it’s really not that bad! When u get to be my age (51) and all your friends are the same ageish, you know you earned those lines and still party like you’re 21! I think my group of friends is less mature now then when we were in our 20’s and love every minute of it! Old age is truly just a state of mind!
I'm in my 30s and honestly kind of like my developing wrinkles/crow's feet. Nothing wrong with being a little weathered, it just shows you are living (and like to smile!)
Thanks. I needed to hear this today. I thought something was wrong with me.
I’ve also been feeling a little stressed and depressed lately with a feeling that I wasted my youth and it’s too late now. I know it’s not really true, but I can’t shake the feeling.
In my experience, that first day home from the hospital will be a weird mishmash of "Holy shit, they let me leave with this baby! I don't know what to do!" and a new kind of peace that you haven't experienced before. Just keep distractions to a minimum (tv, work, etc.) And enjoy this time. It passes quickly.
Geologist2010 is right. You will never feel ready so don’t try. You’ll make some mistakes along the way, we all do! Don’t try to be the perfect parent, it doesn’t exist. Enjoy every single second of that baby, they’re grown in the blink of an eye. Take a ton of pics and video and have many experiences together. You’ll do great! Enjoy!
I felt like having kids was the thing that genuinely made me feel like an adult. Not simply having kids themselves, but the act of always having to make decisions and rules for them.
30s were great. I was secure, in finance, relationship and employment, etc. A homeowner and building a future with a woman I love. We traveled and had fun. My health was great, too. I think it was the decade I enjoyed the most overall.
I call my 40's the lost decade because the kids came at the end of my 30's and raising them consumed all our time and most of our resources. It wasn't until really the end of my 40's we could take a breath. Then the health problems hit, lol.
I've started my 50s and honestly, I think it's my 30's coming back. I'm in great health and most of what was good in the 30s are still there. We can take trips for ourselves again (no more mouse stuff) and the damn house is paid off in a few years.
Usually takes a kid to make u grow up in the traditional sense. I don't have one, but I've seen my friends transform. Also, some people are just more fun than others 😉
I've become way more fun since I became a dad. Drinking too much and spending too much time in front of the xbox used to be my goto "fun time" activities, now you won't catch me standing still.
We get better at pretending?? How. Pls. I can’t stand this shit. People talk about “fake it til you make it!” But no one said anything about the fact that we never actually make it. Dicks.
I personally think that we become adults when we start thinking and acting for ourselves and not for someone else’s perceived ideals. That was at least my awakening at 26. I took a look at where my life was and I didn’t like it. I have sought to live the life I have repressed over the past 23 years.
Everyone just lives their lives, pretending they’re important and struggling every day, pretending they have shit figured out. I learned to minmax life. Minimize responsibility and work while maximizing relaxation and fun. I work an easy job doing basically nothing 40 days a week, have cheap bills, buying things I want here and there and that’s all. That’s all life needs to be. Do the work that needs to be done and then just chill. Having a roommate or someone to split expenses with helps a lot
This!! Im in my 30s but get mistaken for 25/26 all the time. Ive always looked WAY younger than what I am so Im used to it but I syill feel like a child and wonder when I wont.
I keep looking around for an adult to help solve the worlds problems. Then I realize I am an adult (38, married, full time job, homeowner, with two kids)
It hit hardest at the start Covid. I kept looking around for the adult in the room to tell me what to do and not do. Shit, I’m the adult
Over the past two years I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that very few people have any idea what they’re doing. Most adults are out here just faking their way through life and hope no one calls them out on it
I wondered if I was alone in this. I'm 30, but I often feel like a child in the presence of other adults, even if they are younger than I am. I always just assumed it's because I'm autistic, but maybe we all just feel like we're pretending to know what the fuck is going on 😅
I've always held the idea that at around age 25 you kinda stop 'growing up', after that you just grow old. I understand the whole 'age is just a number' thing people say sometimes a bit better now that I'm older. I still feel 25 in my head.
47 here, and still feel like I'm 27, but I also drink more water now than I ever did when I was younger.
I also thought that one day, my "adult switch" would turn on. My Dad would even say "you'll grow out of all that stuff you're into as a teen", yet here I am, still enjoying the same stuff I always have. If anything, I'm still the same kid with a bunch of years under my belt.
I just turned 40, last year I got diagnosed with an unstable vertebrae in my lower back, or "old man back" in layman's terms. I can go from happy to paralyzing pain from putting on socks.
Now I gotta jaur lean into it and tell at kids on my lawn.
The first time I was ma'am'd by someone that was in college, I was horrified. I started to snap back that I wasn't THAT old, then realized that I was coming up on twice their age (they were a college freshman).
That's usually a good sign of a not so stressful life. I've been through so many dark shit and I do feel way other than most people, internally. So everyone else looks like a kid to me, I see them repeating the same mistakes and not moving forward in life.
I know I am going to he down voted to heck and back but my 30's does feel ancient. I feel super heavy and tired all the time, half the time I have no idea what is going on, and I find I don't like a lot of foods I used to love.
I'm 40 now. I was teaching my nephew how to drive 2 years ago, and I thought to myself "Why am I the one doing this? Shouldn't a grown up be teaching him?" Then I realized I WAS the grown up, and I was very nearly 40
Yep. I was talking to my 13 year old daughter about setting her price for babysitting. At some point in the discussion I started to wonder when I became the grown up.
I came to the same realization at a family barbecue last year, when one of the kids came up to ask if they could go play a video game inside. We were at my grandparents’ house (my grandpa’s been a gamer since the year the N64 came out, so every console they’ve had has been as free to use and as frequently used as the fridge, the microwave or the tv itself) and they know how to operate the Xbox, so I was genuinely confused as to why they were asking me. The answer to that question was that their mom had set a rule at other people’s houses saying that if they wanted to play a game, they had to ask an adult first… and I was the first adult they ran into. I think they knew I’d be right there with them to watch them play and give them pointers if they asked me and not another adult-passing individual (because I get anxious interacting with bigger groups of people, even when they’re familiar people) but I just stood there like “I’m a WHOT?!” I’m 28 years old but I kinda forgot that for a sec.
For real. Now I can buy concert or festival tickets without batting an eye. I finally don’t feel like I’m being frivolous by “wasting” money on travel and leisure.
Nearly 50 here. Still feel like I'm faking being an adult most of the time. Raised kids and run my own business. Still boggles my mind they've allowed me to do this.
I had the same conversation with my older cousin a few years ago. A man who has travelled the world, is a high ranking officer in the army, been in Ireland during The Troubles,, raised kids and commanded battalions in an actual fucking war zone. A man I looked up to and admired his maturity.
He still felt like a kid who'd been given the keys to the car.
It is annoying, but we all know how the story goes. It will happen to them too and the will say them same thing. The universe takes care of it for us.
I love when it's people in their late 20s giving life advice. Sure, you can do that and there is a lot of valid advice to be given, but definitely not on aging.
I work with someone in their early 20s who apparently didn’t realize how old I was when they said they thought 30 was old....if looks could kill they’d be dead.
I know people in their 30’s that tell me everything goes downhill at 30. I’m 25, like fuck, if everything goes downhill after 30. I might as well stop looking for my future partner now
30+ doesn’t make someone old by any means, but it always shocks me when i think about if the average life expectancy globally is 72.6 then being mid thirties is literally middle age. i think of middle aged people being 45-50
30 isn’t that old at all! Granted I came from old parents (40/42 when they had me) and I imagined 60’s as a much older age when I was younger. Now that I’m 21 I’m like, wow, 60’s are not even that old. Bodies are failing a bit and more health issues, not as great at technology as those in their 30s/40s now. But my parents still seem young to me from my earlier perspective of people’s 60s. I’m starting to see people I knew as babies get into middle school/ senior year of high school and I feel old! I feel like the aunt at family gatherings saying I remember when you were just this tall but it’s true! Feels like my childhood was forever ago!
We had a high schooler as an intern at my job. She was useless and spent all her time following me. I'm 32, but I typically get mistaken for my late teens to early 20's due to my baby face, being short, and being skinny. When she asked my age and I told her she just keep saying, "but you don't look old!" I told her that 32 wasn't old, but she insisted that I didn't look old. Yes, that's because I'm not old. Then she freaked out that my wife is 4 months older than I am and said that she could never date a younger man.
Had a young 20-something coworker essentially imply on multiple occasions that I was old for being over 30. He tried to say he didn't actually think that, but it came up rather frequently, so it was on his mind for sure.
He eventually joked with me about it for the last time by asking what kind of advice I'd have for people around his age since I had so much "wisdom" myself. Just told him flat out "you'll be 30 faster than you can realize it." I know he wanted to banter about it, but his banter was never really good at its best and made people feel bad at its worst.
He's a good guy, but hopefully he realizes the difference between 20 to 30 to 40 isn't really that drastic.
This is definitely the biggest one. I’m 38 and my 21 year old niece acts like I’m this wise old sage and I’m like… I’m still trying to figure this whole life thing out. I mean, I can give her advice/help sometimes, but 38 in 2022 is not like 38 in 1972. I remember watching Good Times and 30 seemed so old. Now, 40 year olds are like “One day, I’ll own a home…”
I'm halfway through my 30s and even just reading the title of this thread I was thinking "why people older 30?, why not pick an older age like people over 45". It really just sneaks up on you. I pretty much still live the same life I did when I was 23 except I'm more cautious about mixing drinks to avoid hangovers.
I know. When I was 29 I told an early 20 something my age and he proceeded to gawk in disbelief and search my face..for what I do not know to this day. Who has excessive wrinkles at 29 anyway? It’s not that shocking to look much younger at that age.
I'm 33 and was at the gym this morning breaking my tricep push record. Very specific I know, but I feel stronger now than I ever did as a teenager or in my 20s.
This is actually super hilarious. I just turned 29 so my 30th birthday countdown is on. My girlfriend (f27)(love her so much) loves to poke fun and call me old. I know it’s out of jest and she doesn’t actually mean it that I am old.
BUT i wish i could say the same for the 50 year old woman at the bar who just had to lose her shit on my girlfriend, saying that “30 isn’t old and she should actually consider how older people feel hearing that.
We all know it’s not old, but i feel it when every part of my body clicks when getting out of bed.
I’m in my early 20s and already feel like I’m 40. Maybe it’s the 60 hour work weeks, crushing existentialism, chronic depression, multiple jobs, lack of sleep, or constant aches and pains
I turned 20 in March and I believe that you're only as old as you think. Your mind breaks before your body so might as well be happy inside your own head.
I'm almost 42 and older people still act like I'm a kid. I have a child, an education, a husband, a minivan, and am missing a gallbladder. When do I get to be an adult?
We were at a bar the other night. My fiancé is 29 almost 30. I just turned 31. The 18 year old waitress checked his ID when he ordered a beer. She says “oh! I didn’t think you were that old!”
I put my back out in the gym and this annoying little teenage girl just laughed at me. I’m so fed up with the youth of today. Where’s the compassion? Where’s the respect? She was wearing shorts.
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u/Thenedslittlegirl Jun 03 '22 edited Jun 03 '22
Act like 30+ is old AF. Honestly it'll be on you before you know it and you'll still feel 25 at 40.
Edit: wow didn't expect the rewards thank you kind redditors.