Adulting

One morning recently my oldest redhead came into my room and said, "Mommy? You need to get up" and pulled the blankets off of me. Then she started up the shower and got a towel out for me. I laid there for another minute pouting. Then I groaned and got out of bed. FINE. I guess I need to be an adult today. 

Being an adult is not for the faint of heart, no wonder some people fight against it. You have to show up to a job and make money to pay bills and own your actions and words and a lot more! It's tough being an adult and it's tiring.  I'm exhausted from behaving like a grown-up for so long.  Sometimes I just want to lay down in my Grandma's lap and watch TV like I did when I wasn't yet a grown-up. I thought I had it rough then. Psh. 

I mean, sure, there are some perks to being an adult. Although outside of being able to drink legally 

I'm feeling a little hard pressed to come up with any perks right now. And let's face it, in order to keep adulting day after day I need to be able to drink some. *wink*

When I was graduating from High School, as the oldest redhead is about to do, all my classmates were so ready to be "adults."  I think I was the only one on graduation day in tears from fear rather than excitement.  I was perfectly fine as was, I did not think being an adult was going to be all that great - I mean, it came with a lot of responsibility and I was not ready for it.  Not at all. In fact, I'm still not ready for it.

It seems I'm not the only one who thinks this adulting gig is a joke. I read this article a while back and felt the comfort of solidarity. There are others like me. Others who think dusting is highly overrated and forgets to feed the family now and then (or in reality only feeds the family now and then). There are others who believed the deception of adulting being this wonderful thing and instead just want to crawl back into the blanket fort and resume coloring. I'm guessing Netflix was created by a bunch of exhausted adults who needed to create an acceptable form of escape. God bless them, whoever they are. 

My heart races, I break out in sweat, my mouth becomes a cotton field, the butterflies in my stomach transform into buzzing locusts. This is what happens when I am forced to remember that I am the adult in a situation or within a group of people and so I have to behave like it. And I'm never quite positive that I can pull it off, that I can successfully act like an adult, or think like one, I'm not sure I know how to speak like an adult, or even look like one. Isn't there someone else, anyone else, who can be the adult right now?  I might even be able to pay you - or feed you - or water you. I need an adultier adult. Anyone? Anyone? 

I've decided to be honest with my redheads about being an adult. I've let them experience the grind of adulting along with me, I haven't romanticized it in any way. They know they are going to have to adult at some point but they also know it is not all its cracked up to be. Someone thought I should be an adult and look where its gotten me. Exhausted, stressed, and disillusioned. Welcome my children to adult life, have fun - come cry on my shoulder anytime you want, I understand.