40 Bitter Truths About Being An Adult That Usually Don't Cross Teens' Minds, As Pointed Out In This Viral Thread

For me it's watching my parents get old.

As a teenager I thought they were all about keeping me restricted and controlled. Now I realize they're just two people who never had a kid before, did the best they knew how, and fu**ed up at times like all other humans on the planet.

I never realized how much I needed them emotionally until I saw my father through his open heart surgery, and saw Parkinson's take my mother's independence.

So here I am still feeling like a teenager on the inside, staring down the barrel of 50, wondering what the hell happened.

Planning dinner every damn night.

You don't fundamentally change, you are still you, even if you are older. It's the same you, you just need to survive in the adult world.

You don't gain adult powers, you just have to do adult things.

You can do whatever you want, but most of the time you either have commitments that prevent it, or you can't afford it.

One day your body will betray you.

Being lonely. Making friends as an adult is difficult, sometimes verging on impossible. You don't see people in your age group who are doing the same things you are every day anymore.

You are always cleaning the kitchen

You come home from work and you're tired and if you don't feel like making dinner, then you're not eating dinner.

The repetition makes you lose time. Having the same job, workout regimen, schedule in general makes days blend into one another

Edit. Thanks for all the replies. I just want to point out I didn't mean life becomes boring. I was just talking about lack of those major separators we had as children like summer vacation, new school, your first kiss, etc. Due to those major separators missing I don't recall if I did something a year ago or 3 years ago. It's a little blurry if something happened 2 weeks ago or 4 months ago. This is because once you have a career and a home you're doing a lot of similar things most days(work, chores, cooking, hobbies, etc). This is why the days start to blend into one another, at least in your memory.

When something goes wrong or something unexpected happens, there’s no one else to deal with it.

Plugged toilet? You gotta clear it.

Car outta gas? You gotta fill it.

Run out of clean undies? You gotta do laundry.

From small things to massive things, there’s no one to make it go away but you.

That ordering food is actually expensive and your parents weren’t lying to you

There’s never enough time for all the things you need to do. Definitely not enough time for the things you want to do

Life revolves around grocery shopping, preparing food, washing dishes, doing laundry, vacuuming and tidying up. It does not stop, don't let it pile up for the weekends or else you waste your weekends stuck indoors.

Alcohol is not your friend, it does not have the answers you are looking for, and usually gets you in even more trouble. Drink with friends to celebrate, don't drink alone in silence.

A $1000 pay check isn’t nearly as exciting as an adult

When all the cliches that used to piss you off start making sense and meaning something, but you can’t explain it to younger people because they haven’t lived that life experience yet.

People expect you to know what you're doing.

Each day is desperately short. Work consumes 75% of the time you’re awake. And the time you’re free is spent doing chores and being tired. Hobbies slowly cease to exist and you just start to look for quick escapes.

That you had no idea what you were talking about when you were a teenager

Dental care. It’s so damn expensive if you let your teeth degrade. Please floss my dudes.

Forgetting your age is a real problem. The only people who remind me how old I am are my kids, and i often have to double check. I used to ask my parents how old they were and they always "cant remember" or said "21" and it confused me. I get it now.