Today there is a common phrase used by young people, and that phrase is "adulting." According to Urban Dictionary, "Adulting (v): 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 grown-ups." http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Adulting
People will say things like the following: "I just graduated college, I need to start adulting now." Or "I have no idea how to adult," "Just did all my laundry and paid my bills, adulting is so hard."
The problem with this is that, technically, you have been an adult since you were 18 years old. Even before you graduated high school you were technically an adult. At 18 years old you could sign up to go to war and fight for your country. While you were attending college you were an adult whether or not you went away to college or stayed home does not matter. Quite frankly, using phrases such as "adulting" to describe the fact you did the responsibilities of doing your laundry, cooking for yourself, cleaning, working, or paying your bills does not really make you seem like an adult at all.
An adult just does what needs to be done and does not boast to everyone on social media that they are now #Adulting at the age of 25.
It is actually quite sad that years ago people our age had to go be adults even earlier in life and get jobs to support their family or be sent to war.
Some young people even today have to be adults early on, whether it be for financial reasons, family reasons, or maybe they had a child young and could no longer be a kid. They did not do something so they could now say they were "adulting" they did adult things because they had to and did not consider all the simple tasks of life as adulting, but just things they had to do.
So using the phrase "adulting" because you bought groceries for the first time by yourself, or did the simple act of laundry is quite insulting to all the real adults out there and the people who did not get to ease into the "adult world." Stop using the phrase "adulting" to describe situations that are not necessarily adult, but responsible or intelligent.
Yes, be proud of yourself for doing things you already should have been doing. By thinking it is some huge accomplishment or the fact that you graduated college makes you adult, is quite childish and naive.
Maybe we can stop using the phrase "adulting," or using the hashtag #Adulting on social media and just be an adult. Because remember, technically you have been an adult all along whether or not you have done "adult" things.
