And I’m not counting things like what you do or get when you grow up like having a bank account or getting a real job. Nor am I accepting the whole ‘I just grew up’.
My sign of my childhood ending or accepting that it has ended is when all of the nu-metal bands I was introduced to and listened to a lot of us just ended up fractured. They all didn’t endure the passage of time and it was really just a matter of you had to be there to know how popular they were or the scene was.
The bands I used to have listened to have gone the way of Classic Rock on the radio. Spammed tracks from some bands because that’s all the DJ knows or that’s all they’re allowed to play.
I don’t have the energy to play video games anymore
Feeling excitement about this perfectly ironed shirt
You know how to file your taxes.
The first time I went ‘fuck, it’s snowed’ instead of ‘yay, snow!’
(I still love snow, but only at weekends 😆. Better now I can work remotely)
I’m about 15 years from retirement and I’m still a child. I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 becoming retro consoles
When you are more excited to go to sleep than to wake up.
I will let you know .
My parents being dead.
I don’t understand what the fuck the kids are saying anymore. The slang is so incomprehensible that urban dictionary is necessary.
The popular music is garbage and Garbage is forgotten.
I can say “back in my day” without it being funny.
I can reference my ex-wife without it being ironic because I am not youthful and without grey hair, so I may have an ex-wife.
I can say “when I was a little girl” without it being irreverently funny because I am a clearly a guy.
Anyone who thinks new music is shit stopped looking for new music. Which is also a sign.
and anyone who thinks popular music was ever any good has overdosed on nostalgia.
The popular music is garbage and Garbage is forgotten.
About that:
I realized something many years ago: people of a certain age always tend to think music from their time was better. But they all fail to see that whatever music from their generation is still around is the good shit from that time. For example, this still plays on the radio but this thankfully doesn’t.
Whatever young people listen to now is everything: the good and the bad, and mostly the bad. Their shit hasn’t had time to decant yet.
So yeah, to an older listener, today’s music is mostly shit, because it is - just like the music from their past was mostly shit when their past was today 🙂
The popular music is garbage and Garbage is forgotten.
I dig that line
Your childhood ends when your heart stops. You’re never going to stop being someone’s kid, no matter how old, mature or posh you might get. All that changes is that mom won’t tell you no…
…unless you’re Elon Musk. His mom has stepped in publicity even a couple times.
Having to explain things you grew up with to your niece because they’re not part of the world anymore comes at you without warning.
Work
My parents always worked, my older siblings always worked … every adult around me always seemed to be doing something. As a kid it was just normal that everyone everywhere was working at something all the time.
I played and had fun on my own and with my friends but somewhere around the age of ten, I started joining my dad and brothers in all the work they were doing. As soon as I did that, I played less and stopped acting like a kid … I started canceling play time because I was working.
It was sad or disappointing for me … I loved doing all that work and learning so much from my dad and brothers, it was fun in its own way. But when I think about it, the day I started doing adult work, or adult type work, my childhood basically ended.
I think I can even think of the actual moment. Dad and my brothers were renovating the garage and I spent the day just watching them and I really wanted to be part of it all. I picked up a wheel barrow and started moving gravel because dad had asked for material to be moved but everyone was too busy with other work. No one asked me, no one ordered me, I just started shoveling gravel into the wheel barrow. I lifted the barrow and it was too heavy for me, so I unloaded some until I could lift it and move it. As soon as I figured out how much I could carry, I started moving gravel. Then did that about a dozen times until I had moved several yards of gravel.
I was 11 and a big kid for my age. I haven’t really stopped doing things since then.
If you enjoyed it, your childhood didn’t end.
When I don’t understand what young people say. Worse: when they don’t understand what I say.
you can learn the lingo it really doesn’t change that much from generation to generation, but they will never learn the decades of Simpson references you have on lock.
you can learn the lingo it really doesn’t change that much from generation to generation
That’s not the problem: if I talked to a kid with that kid’s generation’s talk, they would look at me with an air of pity. Just like I looked at adults trying to be hip when I was a kid. Older folks who don’t stay in their place aren’t well received, and I’m one of them now, so I abstain.
if you don’t lean into the fellow kids meme then being hip with the lingo will be uncomfortable for everyone involved, but understanding and participating are 2 different things.
When I realised I can’t go crying to my parents anymore and started crying into my pillow instead.
