The term “adulting” has become a part of pop culture lingo with a group of younger millennials using it to refer to what it means to be an adult. Depending on what side of this generation you’re standing on, for some, adulting can come across as an entitlement problem where people who hadn’t previously taken responsibility for their life now do. On the other hand, there is a group that, for them, doing activities that they deem adult is an accomplishment and should be treated as such.
Is it a privilege to say adulting?
For the most part, when we meet this phrase, it is often about people doing “normal” things like making dinner and changing the toilet roll. The next level of it is going to a Burlington cell phone repair store when traveling to get your iPhone fixed instead of waiting to get back home. The reference is mainly in having to do something that another person, primarily the parent that had to take care of. Other aspects such as filing taxes, paying for a lease and student loan are the opium of what it means to be an adult.
When using this phrase, there are aspects that it neglects. The first is there are some who started working earlier in life to make ends meet. They were either the breadwinner or had to make it on their own. For this demography, adulting started early, and it was nothing to brag about. It was simply something they had to do to stay off the streets.
Adulting as a rite of passage
The other scenario it assumes is we’re not meant to be independent. Growing up comes with responsibilities that we have to shoulder. It is not a new concept; since the existence of the planet growing up entailed taking up responsibilities that you did not initially take on. Life has a natural progression, and one of it is eventually, should you choose, being responsible for someone else’s life.
Using #adulting should be empowering when you’re doing things that epitomize being an adult. Are you paying a mortgage, have gone back to school and worked two jobs to support the family? Then that’s when you should use adulting because it signifies taking up the role with valor. Therefore, before telling the world how you’re an amazing adult, ensure that it is something applaud-worthy. Otherwise, it just comes across as a “humble” brag.
