20 Adult Problems Nobody Prepared You For, Shared In An Online Thread

How many wish they could go back in time and tell their younger selves to not rush to grow up? I assume the majority. How easy it was back in the day, huh? When your only responsibility was to prepare homework and help parents around the house with some simple chores. No concept of money, no taxes, no 9 till 5. Those were the days.

It’s funny how children imagine being an adult means having total freedom and doing whatever the heart desires. Imagine being free of financial commitments and everyday responsibilities. A girl can dream! Someone on Ask Reddit raised a question: “what is one thing that you don’t like about adult life?” Many grown-ups joined the thread and delivered candid responses.

Scroll below and see what difficulties these Redditors didn’t expect to undergo in adulthood.

More info: Reddit

#1

Image source: IatemyBlobby

The next step seems so far away. There was always the next grade level, or next school (middle school, then high school, then college). The next graduation, the next step up. Suddenly, retirement is the next step, which is 40 years away.

#2

Image source: Nonsenseinabag

There’s never enough time off, it’s work, work, work almost the whole year with a couple of weeks where you can relax for a second and catch your breath.

#3

Image source: diegojones4

After awhile it all starts to blend together like the movie Groundhog’s day.

#4

Image source: bushpotatoe

Money. Money sucks and I hate having to worry about it all the time.

#5

Image source: OkHomework7009

People/jobs expect you to not have a life outside of work.

#6

Image source: OneMorePotion

Taxes. On top of paying for everything yourself, you also need to pay for simply existing in a society.

#7

Image source: MaeganMurrow

I think the toughest part is realising that Life can be absolutely f*cking brutal for no reason and out of nowhere. I think many of us were raised to believe that if we did things a certain way or achieved certain things that we’d have a level of protection against the worst life can throw. Like, working hard or getting a decent job or finding a good partner. And the next thing you know, boom, you’re in an accident and bed ridden for months. Or boom, someone you love gets a terrible addiction. Or boom, miscarriage. Boom, fire. And the older I get the more I see it happen to others too – no one is exempt. I was lucky my first “boom” happened fairly early so I’m a little more resilient now (though f*cking tired). My sister had her first big “boom” in her late 30s and it almost destroyed her. I think she thought she had life figured, and suddenly her world got flip turned upside down. It’s brutal and no one escapes, I don’t think. Maybe solitary Buddhist monks.

#8

Image source: __–__7

Having the knowledge, but not the time, energy or enthusiasm to learn all the cool stuff you always wanted to know how to do as a kid.

#9

Image source: KeyProperty2134

Feeling pressured to have sex.

I’m a virgin, not because of any religious/moral beliefs but because I simply haven’t found the time and the right person to do it with. I don’t want to do something so intimate with someone if I can’t trust them and/or connect with them. Society’s way of talking about sex and including sex in media so often makes me (21 F) feel unnecessarily ashamed for not having done it yet. I have been shamed at by men for saying “No” to their offers, and their “small” gestures to lure me in don’t help either.

#10

Image source: Bassturd13

Knowing the fact that one day, you won’t have your parents to help you anymore, you could easily wind up broke and homeless and you’re nearing closer and closer to your own death.

#11

Image source: maggiecow

I really hate those moments where I get a reality check about my childhood/teenage years. Since becoming an adult, I’ve been noticing problems in my family I would have never been able to see with my childhood naivety. Also, a certain music scene used to be a big part of my life. I’ve been an adult for close to a decade now, and half of the people I admired turned out to be very sh*tty people — with some even convicted and stuff. Gives me a really bad feeling about what/who used to give me a feeling of belonging and comfort in my teenage years

#12

Image source: HungryLikeTheWolf99

Realizing the impermanence of everything you do.

That is, as a child, things seem truly permanent. But as you get older, everything you create has a shelf life to it, and will degrade. As a child, maybe you work with a parent to build a little treehouse fort, and from your perspective, it will last forever. As an adult, you pay 1-2 months’ income to replace your furnace or your car’s transmission or etc., and realize that you’ll just have to do this again in 10-20 years, because everything wears out.

And this doesn’t even touch the big impermanence issues – realizing that everything you do at work is a 2- or 4-year product/solution that will become garbage in the near future; or that no one will know a single thing about your life other than maybe your name in just a couple generations.