It has been brought to my attention that superiors of mine, or shall we all laugh as I call them elders, are somewhat perplexed by the millennial usage of the word “adulting.”
I will start with my definition then compare it to different definitions I’ve gathered from across the World Wide Web.
I’ve used this phrase more times than I am proud to admit.
Most times when I use it, I’m referring to adult responsibilities that are usually not fun, maybe stressful and stuff I feel like maybe I wasn’t adequately warned about as an adolescent.
Also, this word is used by those who maybe feel like they aren’t all the way an adult yet, so performing adult-like duties may seem to be a bit of a behavior rather than one’s true identity.
TIME.com defined “adulting” in a short and sweet manner – to make someone behave like an adult; turn someone into an adult.
Another website hit it on the head, if you ask me, by defining adulting like this – to do grown up things and hold responsibilities such as a 9-5 job, a mortgage/rent, a car payment, or anything else that makes one think of grownups.
The common theme here is people who don’t necessarily think of themselves as a grown-up or an adult, having to, in fact, act like they are.
I recently saw a meme saying, “Adulthood is a lot like a board game that no one read the instructions on, nobody really knows what we’re doing, we’re all just kind of figuring it out as we go.”
That made me chuckle because there have been times where the phrase “fake it ‘til you make it” has never seemed more true.
Here’s a worthy question though: Why has my generation decided that we aren’t capable or shouldn’t have to do these types of things that people for generations have been doing?
I’m not certain, but surely we can’t be the first to complain about it… We are a vocal, meme-generating, social media activist generation, so maybe we’re complaining as those before us have, but we’re just louder?
Whether you acknowledge it or not, there are things that you do on a daily basis that you wish you could just skip.
A friend of mine just had to buy eight tires, yes I said that right, eight tires two weeks before Christmas because her and her husband’s cars had seen better days. That is what we call adulting.
Another example that may seem bogus to someone who’s been doing it for 20-plus years, but to a first time rent/mortgage-payer, seeing the biggest chunk of your paycheck go away at the beginning of every month can hurt.
That doesn’t mean we aren’t thankful that we have a place to live; it just hurts when you aren’t used to that kind of thing (Thanks mom and dad for keeping a roof over our heads all these years).
Have you started to catch on to this odd phrase millennials seem to wear out?
Who knows, maybe the next time you do something that you wish your parents could still do for you, or you get sick and the only cure would be to go home and have your mom take care of you, you may want to not “adult” for a day.
While some of us millennials need to just get over it and “get happy in the same pants we got sad in,” to quote my dad, there are others who are contributing members of society, and just one day we looked up and thought, “When did I grow up?”
If that’s the case for you or a millennial you know, take heart in knowing you are not alone.
The Lord does not give us any task that is too large to accomplish if we lift our eyes to Him and depend on Him for our strength, no matter how not fun it is.