When did you figure out that you had grown up?

1. 60

   ThatFatGuyposted 13 years ago

   When did you figure out that you had grown up?
   
   or when do you think you will have to?

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2. 61

   shussain86posted 13 years ago

   Seriously, I still can't figure out yet! That I'm a grown up!

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3. 69

   TinaTangoposted 13 years ago

   When I had to pay my first car insurance bill, 200 bucks a month while in high school!  Gotta love New Jersey...
   (edit:  That wasn't when I was completely "grown up", that was more along the lines of "it's time to grow up.")

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4. 88

   izettlposted 13 years ago

   When I had a baby. My life totally changed and not all the fuzzy warm feelings of being a mommy kind of change, but realizing someone else was dependent on me. THis is a life in my hands. Also, not being able to do whatever I want and considering someone else first.

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5. 61

   Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

   On the one hand, I've felt grown up since I was about three years old.  On the other hand, I don't feel grown up now in a lot of ways.
   
   Looking back, I guess I was launched into premature "grown-up-ness" the year I was in an accident that killed my childhood friend, months after a couple of other deaths of young people in my life - with my father dying only months after that.  I was 20/21.  By the time I really got past all that stuff/tragedy, I was in my mid-twenties and adopting a baby who needed a mother.  It wasn't long after that that I was having premature babies and miscarriages, and I found myself with three children and whole lot of responsibility.  Some more grown-up worries and issues kicked in as well.  I guess the last, tail-end, years of carefree youth were wiped out that one awful year, and by the time I was over it all I was already entrenched in grown-up life - never to be able to regain that same "innocence of youth" that I'd had before.
   
   That grown-up life has been far better than any teen years had ever been, so it's not all bad.  It's just that it might have been nicer if I'd had a couple more years of feeling young and carefree before settling into the more meaningful (and whole), adult, life.  The good side to that bad year, however, was that I learned how important it is not to let life take too much youthfulness away from us - so all these years later, I'm happy to say I've been very skilled at safeguarding what was left of my "young thinking", and of what was left of a happy young girl after tragedy swept in and stole whatever it was able to steal from her.
   
   If you saw the movie, Forrest Gump, you may recall how Forrest said something like, "I may not be a smart man, but I know how to love."  The thing I would say is, "I may not have had a charmed end to my teen years, but I know how not to be too grown-up and old."  Being grown-up, I've found, is something we have to do when the situation calls for it.  It's never something we have to be when the situation doesn't require it.

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6. 36

   edhanposted 13 years ago

   When I started working. I wish that I am still young and studying as I had enjoyed the most during those days!

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7. 60

   duffsmomposted 13 years ago

   When I had my first child at age 30.  It came rushing at me like a freight train that I was someone's mother.  It was an awesome awakening.

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8. 60

   Daffy Duckposted 13 years ago

   I grew up!  When did that happen?  This is news to me.

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9. 0

   wilbury4posted 13 years ago

   I'm only 52, no where near grown up yet!

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10. 88

    mcrawford76posted 13 years ago

    I had my first job at 14, my parents divorced the same year.
    I moved out at 15
    Had my first child at 23
    Am a proud parent of 4 beautiful children.
    Even with all of that, I can't answer your question. Because I decided long ago that age is insignificant. If you are young in your heart than you are young. Therefore I am still a child. I love to run and play with my children (even when it angers the wife)

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11. 62

    nightwork4posted 13 years ago

    i'm trying but the thought of growing up bores the heck out of me. ask my wife, she says i'm just a kid in a man's body.

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12. 61

    OriginArtzposted 13 years ago

    Umm...yesterday. Is that a good enough answer?

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13. 58

    MoneyCreator24posted 13 years ago

    I think it was when I got my daughter, my very first child. But very often I still try to figure out if I really have grown up. Anyhow I´m sure, somewhere deep inside me, I´m still the little boy I was.
    
    How it was to become a father I describe here: http://hubpages.com/hub/IamPeterPan

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14. 85

    Denise Handlonposted 13 years ago

    The summer I found out my husband was terminally ill with cancer.  I attended to him until he died...he lasted only 12 weeks from the time he was diagnosed.  I will always refer this to, "the summer I grew up"

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