We’ve already established that making friends as an adult is hard and glanced at other daunting adult realizations, suggesting that adulthood is no easy ride. However, that’s just looking at the negative side of things. When you were a kid, do you remember dreaming of all the things you could do once you grew up? Well, this seems ironic today, considering many of us would rather have the First World problems we had as kids than the ones we have today.
Nevertheless, we were jealous of all the adult activities we couldn’t partake in, which we saw the adults do. We wished we could stay up late, have sleepovers with friends chit-chatting into the night, or eat dessert first whenever we wanted to and without having to ask for permission. We dreamed of all the cool activities for adults that our parents and peers were doing and believed that freedom of choice was the best thing about being an adult. And now that we are (still) young and able, we can enjoy the freedom of choice too. If we skip the “work till you die” part (it’s hard to do, we know), there is so much to enjoy as an adult. To remind ourselves of the pros of being an adult, we looked at this recent thread on AskReddit, which inquired, “What’s cool about being an adult?” The still-open thread revealed the many joys of being an adult and all the fun activities for adults which wouldn’t be appropriate or allowed for children. Everything has its own time!
To bring back that “I’m 18 now, the world is at my feet” attitude, below, we’ve compiled some of the most spot-on responses revealing the best things about being an adult. Are there any other cool adult things and activities for adults that are worth growing old for? Let us know in the comments! If you agree with any of the entries, make sure to give those an upvote. Also, if you enjoyed this article, share the joy by sharing it with your friends!
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"Pro: I can eat an entire bag of cadbury mini eggs and no one can stop me.
Con: i ate an entire bag of cadbury mini eggs and no one stopped me so now im going to lie down."
"I get to have an every night sleepover with my favorite person and no one yells at us when we stay up late giggling. (My husband)."
"Boss on Monday: Did you have a good weekend?
Me: Yep, it was glorious.
Boss: oh yeah? What did you do?
Me: not a f*cking thing, and I loved every second of it."
"Learning that when I’m asked to do something unreasonable, “No” really is a full sentence.
What a glorious day that was."
King_Zapp wrote:
"The coolest thing about being an adult is not caring about being cool."
darwin_shark replied:
"Underrated comment. It's wild (and IMO really sad) the completely trivial things that affect kids to the point of being bullied, developing depression etc, based on the social expectation to be 'cool'. Like bands, movies, famous people, clothing, trying to be the perfect example of a trend e.g., being emo, hipster etc just to fit in.
As an adult, it would be laughable if someone dissed you because you liked a band or celebrity others find unattractive. I'm super different from all my best mates in terms of hobbies etc. but we love each other FOR those things cos they make us who we are."
"When a new video game comes out that you've been eagerly anticipating, if you organise yourself you can take a couple of days off and absolutely no-life the sh*t out of it. Skip showers, order in, revel in the slobitude in a way you never could as a kid."
"There’s still consequences when you get older. Instead of parents yelling at you, it’s your body yelling at you."
Oh yes. Now we are at my age. Every muscle resists when I'm climbing a set of stairs. But the guy in this picture doesn't look like this is his problem. He looks like he forgot it is his wife's birthday, and now he's f*cked.
"My girlfriend said its to old to be skateboarding around town if you could order a drink in a bar.
So I rode my skate board to the bar and ordered a beer. She didn’t like that but she got the point when I asked everyone if it was ok to bring my skateboard in and they all said “hell yeah!”. Solid conversation starter met some good people."
"No more panic about forgetting to study for exams for not doing a term paper assignment.
Just kidding.
I'm in my 40's and I still have panic dreams where I wake up thinking I am late for a midterm."
"I'm in my mid 20s and progressively realizing adults are just winging it. My job even is full of educated guessing."
"I woke up at 9am today. it's currently 12:30pm, and I am still in bed. I'll get up when the hunger pains take over, but until then, bed."
"I once stayed in a hotel on a Tuesday night because I felt like it.
I got off of work. Checked in to a hotel. Got room service. Then checked out in the morning and showered and changed back at my place. It was fun."
"I'm eating ice cream. Its raining outside and its cold. But I fancied ice-cream, so here I am."
There is no “ice cream weather.” All weather is ice cream weather.
"I went for a walk by the river this morning. Grabbed a coffee, sat on a bench, and watched chipmunks scurry around the river bank for about 15 minutes while I drank my coffee. I ended up in that time, reflecting on how far I've come from the child I was when I left home.
Sometimes, responsibilities suck. Other times, I get to just decide I'm going to watch chipmunks by the river at 9am without anyone interfering with the plans or lack thereof I have for my day and myself.
This extends to more consequential things, like where I want to live, what I want my career to be, or who I want to include in my life. You can LITERALLY do whatever the hell you want. Growing up is simply understanding your tolerance for the consequences of doing whatever the hell you want."
"Breakfast beers sometimes just hit right. I made a full breakfast during covid lockdown: buttered toast, perfectly cooked firm but chewy bacon, maple smoked sausage links, scrambled eggs with a bit of cheddar cheese, perfectly crispy hashbrowns with onions and peppers, setup my outdoor table, drug my camp chair out there one morning perfect 70*F with light breeze sun shining. Decided to have a light beer with it. Omg heaven lol."
I lived in Asia for 10 years. If you are having a beer in the morning, people there do not judge you.
"Control over my own time and money. Like, obviously I can’t do anything illegal. But if I want to sit on the couch all day during my day off, if I want to watch cartoons in my gym shorts, if I want to buy a value pack of frozen cream puffs from Costco, I can do all of those things and nobody can stop me."
I don’t have that problem (still a kid). My brother does, because he spends on his money on stuff that “isn’t important or helpful or ANYTHING”, like on toys. My parents have him on a spending hold until he can learn to be more responsible with money. I don’t have one because I rarely buy anything and I’m always saving.
"Having the money to support all of your nerdy hobbies and interests. Like if teen me could have a peek at just my home office, he'd be stoked. Big flat screen TV, multiple gaming consoles, custom-built PC, a bunch of nerdy posters and decor, a drawer full of different w**d strains(fixed), etc. I'd be looking forward to adulthood, not dreading it, if I could see how dope things got."
I concur. Life has gotten more fun and interesting the older I get, I have a good work-life balance and plenty of $$ for learning new hobbies.
"Occasionally I take my girlfriend on a date to a bowling alley. We don't go bowling, we just spend 20 to 30 pound on various arcade machines and penny slot machines and rack up a bunch of tickets and then go trade them for some sh*tty prize. Exactly what you wish you could do as a kid but your parents never let you spend that much money at the arcade."
"Not having to ask permission.
If something is legal you don't have to worry about anyone telling you you can't do it and grounding you if you do it anyway. Wanna stay out late, your choice. Wanna not take out the trash, your choice (although eventually you'll need to, but it can be on your schedule)."
At what stage does bored panda hide comments? - All I said was that this person wasn't married. What was wrong with that?
yesweyolo wrote:
"Going to bed at 8pm because I want to."
InsertBluescreenHere replied:
"I accidently went to bed at 9 last night - felt like it was like 10:30, body was tired so just auto pilot doing the nightly routine. Laid down for bed and looked at my phone - 9:15... I was like wtf welp looks like i'm getting extra sleep."
Looks like this person is not at the Saturday and Sunday afternoon nap stage yet.
"My wife and I buy 50 hot wings every anniversary and every Valentine's Day and get legally stoned with the weed I bought from the fuckin' w**d store and play video games or watch movies for our date night."
"Everything. Every f*cking thing. I hated being a kid/teenager. At 40 being an adult still hasn’t lost its novelty. For example, although I normally cook dinner most days a week, today I said f*ck it and we ate bagel bites. I might paint my living room a new color tonight. I can do anything I want!"
dont_u_know wrote:
"You can garlic bread whenever you want."
lipidlasagna521 wrote:
"What if the bread doesn't want to be garliciked tho?"
"Have you ever built a pillow fort with your SO, got snacks, beer and then f***ed in it? That’s the real sh*t haha."
"No kids 3 money."
FunkyEchoes wrote:
"I wanted to go back into skateboarding, spent a week really wishing i could have a skateboard..... To then realize "wait a minute, I'm a grown a** man ! I have a salary ! I can buy a Skateboard whenever I want !" !! So... long story short, I have 4 skateboards now !"
reverze1901replied:
"Definitely this. Mine was skis. Been renting my whole life and woke up one day remembering i now have the money to buy my own set! So i go to the slopes, put on my new skis, and see people zipping down the mountain gracefully. Decided i want to ski like that, so i signed up for a couple 1:1 lessons. That went on for a couple seasons, now i can ski down anything."
Mine was videogames. I remember BEGGING for the playstation and barely got it. How i later got the ps2 was an absolute miracle. One day in my office i was admiring the PS4 on the internet until that lightbulb appears in my head that i can afford this I don't have to beg to anyone. I took my bonus and bought a ps4, and a ps3, because why not.
"Realizing that there are so many things that you really don't need to give an F about, just as you're running out of F's to give."
"If you have disposable income you can spend it on ANYTHING. Including all your childhood toys you wanted and noones to stop you. Videogames? Buy away."
"There is something empowering about facing the challenges of life on your own. Using the skills and lessons you have learned to stride confidently into the future. I love that feeling."
"If you're mad at someone or don't like someone, you won't have to talk to them ever again if you don't want to. And you can let them know as much too, and as long as it doesn't break a law nobody can tell you off."
"Cooking (or rather grabbing anything out of the fridge at 2 am) possibly naked, but not giving af."
"I can be Bilbo Baggins exploring places both abandoned and not abandoned. I love underground places, ruins and dark tourism."
"When I first crossed into "adulthood" I would say yes to just about anything cause I was a people pleaser, and it caused a lot of mental health sh*t in my head. Then my therapist taught me the art of "Joyful Yes and Confident No", basically meaning only say "Yes" when you actually mean it, not just cause you don't wanna disappoint. And saying "No" without worrying about disappointing anyone or upsetting someone, you say "No" because you mean "No"."
"Being able to drive to the cinema and see a showing at midnight if I want to."
Pale_Currency_134 wrote:
"If I think of something I want, I just acquire it in most cases. Also, when I get gas, I always fill the tank, and I seldom even look at the price."
InsertBluescreenHere responded:
"same with groceries. like yea stupid inflation things am i really gonna just NOT buy milk cuz its $0.40 higher? i did forgo eggs when they were stupid priced but never really liked eggs anyways. I just buy what i want and b*tch later lol Like im not gonna sacrifice quality or tastes just to save a buck.
gas yea i got a gas station credit card so when i use it at their stations its 10 cents off a gallon - save some money but its not like i can just say nah not buyin any so i just top it off every time. pay it off every month and collect rewards points."
I can’t believe I’m growing up in a time with inflation. I’m going to college next year. Help.
"I can make my own medical decisions! I pick my haircut! I eat what I want to and when I want to! I don’t have to explain myself when i go somewhere! This sh*t rules!"
Young adult post. When you're older "medical decisions" are usually non negotiable.
"Having dinner, watching TV, and smoking w**d with my best friend is truly one of my favorite ways to spend time. He’s out of town right now but will be back tomorrow night, and within an hour or so we’ll be on my porch getting high and enjoying the gorgeous spring weather we’re having right now. F*cking glorious."
SweetHomeElazig wrote:
"Doing childish stuff with more money."
sckurvee added:
"I work solely to fund my hobbies.
Also to support my househole, but whatever."
"Having a car is pretty cool, gets me further than my bike did lol."
"Work is a lot easier than school and you get paid to do it. It's a win/win."
"Having time to grow. I don’t mean physically, but real personal growth. When you’re young you’re just doing your best to roll with the punches, but once you’re older you get a chance to look back on your mistakes and figure out what you could be doing better.
For instance, you may look back and realize you had a hard time making friends. It seems inescapable at that age, but when you’re older you realize that you’ve changed over time, and if you’ve changed from the past to the present then that means you can change from the present to the future. So you start socializing more, learning from your new mistakes, and before you know it you have relationships you’ll cherish until you die.
The more effort you put into improving yourself (I don’t mean that Andrew Tate gigachad bullsh*t, but real work on being a better version of yourself), you start to realize you can decide who you want to be. The line between who you are and who you see the best version of yourself being gets slimmer and slimmer, and you eventually become this beautiful amalgamation of the scars from your experiences and a walking demonstration of your wildest dreams.
When I was a young teen, I had no idea who I was or who I wanted to be, but I kept trying new things and kept reiterating myself and I’m very happy with who I became. It takes a lot of work and introspection, and you’ll fail a million times over, but if you never give up on your vision you will have a life you can be proud of, even if it’s not exactly what you thought it would be."
Oh my goodness this was so incredibly worded and being a super shy introvert it’s nice to hear that I can have hope for future friends instead of just a dog! (Of course, not downplaying the dog.) This needs to be at the top in my opinion.
"The independence."
The independence to pay your own bills, mortgage , taxes, food, .Oh,What freedom!! ( Yes,sarcasm).
"Getting into a serious romantic relationship.
Meeting their parents.
Realising all parents are f*cking weird in their own wonderful ways."
I avoided meeting various gf's parents whenever I could. Dads are not too happy to meet whoever is banging their "little girl" even if the "little girl" is 28.
"I'll tell you when I've grown up, but that will be a while from now, I'm only 50. Jokes aside, it's cool to be good at what you do for a living (which chances are you will be because you get to choose what it is), it's cool to not have to ask your parents or anyone for permission to do what you like. It's super cool to see your kids grow up and become better versions of yourself but also completely different people. It's cool when they say that they have a good youth because frankly, mine s*cked."
This! There is nothing better than your grown kids succeeding AND wanting to hang out with you lol. My parents sucked. I had a horrific childhood and I got as far away as possible at 16. My 21 year old daughter just got a degree, works for a prestigious law firm, and we don't go 2 hours a day without talking. My second daughter graduates High School in 13 days and is nervous to leave home and leave me...This single mom takes that as a WIN!
"I think consent is a very cool thing. As a child you're not legally allowed to choose anything and any consent you get for anything else comes from an adult. As an adult I can choose to go on the scariest amusement park ride or eat an entire family sized bag of chips.... and no one can stop me."
Go for it lad. Choose the biggest chips / crisps you can get, but eat them AFTER the scariest rollercoaster.
"Waiting until the day i snap and go "oh, i can order beekeeping stuff and keep bees in my own house now and there's no mom here to care about it."
"I am sitting here at a restaurant right now on a business trip for two days. Nothing on my schedule until 6pm. Nice hotel, nice lunch. Nice beer. Maybe a park. Yep. Adult is better."
8champi8 wrote:
"I can buy a cake right now, and you can’t stop me."
sleepyJoesBidet replied:
"Hold my beer."
"Doing kids stuff while drunk. I would highly recommend sledding with a good buzz."
Reminds me of the time I went sledding while drunk in the dark. Scary but fun.
"Not having to explain yourself.
Sure, you can explain yourself if you want to be polite or friendly, but one of the greatest things I've found about being a grown adult is that I don't owe anyone an explanation for why I want to do something."
Pretty sure you'd owe an explanation for murder or arson or treating someone like s**t but ok
"You no longer have to worry about whether you're gonna eat that day or if you're gonna be t*rtured by the people who own you.
Now you can choose homelessness over ab*se."
"I love going to trampoline parks and I don’t understand why this is supposed to be an activity for children. It’s a great cardio workout that burns tons of calories, the next day I can definitely feel that I got an ab workout, and I get to be a 34 year old man doing backflips. It’s awesome."
"Having money and being able to drink legally instead of drinking self made alcohol drinks that taste awful in the forest."
"I certainly don’t miss giving to get around using public transportation because where I live it’s just generally awful and such a huge time sink. If I wanted to get to the mall, it would be a f*cking day trip there, vs 20 mins by car. Pretty much the same with work, I’d have to get way too early just to spend 3 hours taking the bus to work when it was 30 mins by car.
Public holidays were the worst because buses would not operate that day, so I’d end up having to either call out or walk to work.
Having a car is such a blessing lol."
"My son tells me I was a good mom, but I worry that I wasn’t… being a single mom was stressful, I yelled way too much. My son just tuned me out most of the time.
He’s grown to be such a great guy, despite me, I believe."
keep working on your beautiful relationship with your son! you have many more wonderful years to enjoy. you your son probably found a strength that he needed. and most probably from you. Yelling is a sign of needing help, but the stress you went through was probably more than non-single moms and non-parents can imagine. be kind to yourself and to him.
"Living by myself and doing what I want. If I want to eat candy and blast Iron Maiden at 3 in the morning I can do that (I have a detached house out in the country). If I suddenly want to spend the whole weekend on a car show far away, or go on a road trip to look at some old lump of steel with 4 wheels that happens to be for sale I can do that. I really like the freedom. When I was a kid I was d*ad sure that being an adult would be better, and so far I have been right. There are downsides, and there have been problems that all adults have to face, but overall it has been worth it."
"Most casino’s offer some sort of rewards card. Sign up for that and usually they’ll mail or email you monthly offers with coupons for free rooms, meals, usually 10 or 20 bucks of free slot play and stuff like that. The casinos near me have really nice rooms and great restaurants so it’s like a monthly free mini vacation."
"My wife and I will play the game at Costco or Meijer about how much the total will be. I'm usually pretty wrong because I have no idea how much any of this sh*t costs."
Just look! Pineapple = £1.69, Satsuma = £2.49 and oranges = £0.39. You can count. Can you?
"Getting to the point where you meet someone and their parents try to impress YOU."
"I can have s*x and not sneak to do it.
I have a good paying job and can afford all my hobbies.
I can drink alcohol and not sneak to do it.
I can go where ever I want for the most part and no one can stop me.
I can stay up as late as I want and no one can stop me.
I can go to the store on Tuesday and buy a sheet cake simply because I want to.
I can go to the park and take a duck or goose home.
I can make tiny humans and no one can tell me I'm being irresponsible.
Did I say I can have s*x yet?"
GrandPerspective5848 wrote:
"Most people younger than me look at me and think I'm an adult with a 'life'. Little do they know..."
-AE86Tofu- added:
"life? haha.. ha.. ha... *sobs into empty bank account and long working hours*."
At last. Somebody here with a touch of the true reality about adulthood.
You can and do remember you’ll need to feed it. What do ducks even eat? Duckweed? Can you buy that? I don’t think it’s actually good to feed them bread. Then, eventually it’ll poop, I don’t know if ducks can be “house trained”. It also hurts to be bitten by a duck. Lol! But hey, knock yourself out adult!!
Load More Replies... Several of these require disposable income which is not a given in adulthood. Many people work hard to live paycheck to paycheck. Several of these are clearly pre or post raising children (I think mostly pre). And several of these do not seem to be in a significant relationship. Now, don’t get me wrong, relationships don’t stop you from being yourself, but I certainly consider my husband when I’m making choices about my life. And of course, my son impacts all my decisions. With all that said, I guess the real wins are still freedom of choice, just maybe smaller than some mentioned. Like getting cupcakes for no reason - doable. Randomly buying a PS3 and a PS4 or buying skis and ski lessons - pretty expensive. Going to sleep early or sleeping in - dependent on children and work schedules but maybe doable. Getting to have s3x and drink without hiding it or sneaking around - definitely possible. Spending a whole weekend doing nothing - not very likely with kids.
I have 0 kids and will continue to have 0 kids. I chose a partner who, while I absolutely do consider them in my decision making, recognizes I am my OWN person and that my decisions I make for myself are my own. They don't even get veto power because they don't own me. Fortunately we align on many things, like not having kids and exploring the states and living our best lives even though we're poor af. Just because you're not at that point in your life right now doesn't mean you won't ever be. I just skipped the "having kids" part and went straight to the "doing whatever I want" part. When I have disposable income it goes to me and my partner, not straight into the money pit kids are. Anyway, I'm gonna go eat some cupcakes, buy a new Xbox controller, stay up late smoking and playing videogames, sleep in, then have mimosas and seduce my partner to stay in bed with me all weekend. All things I can do as a child free 30-something! No one needs to breed to have a worthwhile life.
Load More Replies... You can and do remember you’ll need to feed it. What do ducks even eat? Duckweed? Can you buy that? I don’t think it’s actually good to feed them bread. Then, eventually it’ll poop, I don’t know if ducks can be “house trained”. It also hurts to be bitten by a duck. Lol! But hey, knock yourself out adult!!
Load More Replies... Several of these require disposable income which is not a given in adulthood. Many people work hard to live paycheck to paycheck. Several of these are clearly pre or post raising children (I think mostly pre). And several of these do not seem to be in a significant relationship. Now, don’t get me wrong, relationships don’t stop you from being yourself, but I certainly consider my husband when I’m making choices about my life. And of course, my son impacts all my decisions. With all that said, I guess the real wins are still freedom of choice, just maybe smaller than some mentioned. Like getting cupcakes for no reason - doable. Randomly buying a PS3 and a PS4 or buying skis and ski lessons - pretty expensive. Going to sleep early or sleeping in - dependent on children and work schedules but maybe doable. Getting to have s3x and drink without hiding it or sneaking around - definitely possible. Spending a whole weekend doing nothing - not very likely with kids.
I have 0 kids and will continue to have 0 kids. I chose a partner who, while I absolutely do consider them in my decision making, recognizes I am my OWN person and that my decisions I make for myself are my own. They don't even get veto power because they don't own me. Fortunately we align on many things, like not having kids and exploring the states and living our best lives even though we're poor af. Just because you're not at that point in your life right now doesn't mean you won't ever be. I just skipped the "having kids" part and went straight to the "doing whatever I want" part. When I have disposable income it goes to me and my partner, not straight into the money pit kids are. Anyway, I'm gonna go eat some cupcakes, buy a new Xbox controller, stay up late smoking and playing videogames, sleep in, then have mimosas and seduce my partner to stay in bed with me all weekend. All things I can do as a child free 30-something! No one needs to breed to have a worthwhile life.
Load More Replies...