When did you first realise you were an adult?

Like couple of other posters my mum took me to a job interview for well known high Street bank & I got the job!

When my parents dropped me and luggage off at the house friends and I had rented near my first job, 70 miles from home. It was so quiet once they'd left, and I burst into tears!

Leaving school and getting a job age 15.

..oops don't think it's happened yet

When I got my Tesco reward card.

When I started work at 15yrs and having to pay board .

In my late twenties. The shops finally stopped asking to see my I.D

responsibility!

When I had my first child.
My absolute responsibilty.

Everyone seems very focused on cars, first jobs etc., but I didn't feel really grown up until I had my first sexual experience a seventeen. It was my choice, and very special.

When I got married. I finally felt grown up. I wanted to go to New Zealand for 2 years under a scheme funded by the government when I was 21 but as I was under 25 and not married, I needed my father's permission and he wouldn't give it. How can you feel grown up when you need your dad's permission to do something.???

It wasn't until my Dad had health problems and finally had to move into a nursing home that I felt "grown up". I'm an only child, and although I have a supportive hubby and grown up children, I had to become the adult when making decisions regarding dad's care and finances. I had to try to be assertive when dealing with particular problems, then having a little sob when I came off the phone!

The day my mother died, very suddenly when I was 47

I'm not sure I have grown up yet! I suppose the day I started work at 16 was a defining moment. But yesterday DH and I had a snowball fight in the front garden and were tooted at by passing cars! I'm 67, he's 75. I then said to him what do you want to be when you grow up? He said I don't want to! It has kept us happy and youthful for 40 years, no intention of changing.

standing in front of a class full of 13 year olds and i was the teacher!

Me too Chewbacca.... My first wage was £5 per week and I had to give my mum £2/10s... half of it! I also got 5/0s luncheon vouchers per week. my bus fares were 15/6 per week. It didn't leave much for 'fun'. But me and my mates seemed to manage a bit of a laugh over the years. I was 16 and well and truly grown -up! I think!

Like so many others, handing half of my first pay packet to my mother, when I was 16; moving away from home a year later; having my ears pierced in the face of my mother's disapproval once I was legally an adult; voting for the first time and ordering a ton of coke for the stove in my very own flat for the first time!

When I passed my driving test - but I was in my mid fifties so it was bit late!
I'm not sure that I've ever really felt like a 'proper grown-up' but seeing my face in the mirror tells me otherwise.

Thinking about moving up the scale soon, but seeing some of the posts here, may I still stay in my cocoon.

Same as sluttygran for me, being left in charge of a ward as a student nurse and having to rely on my own knowledge to make decisions.

Interesting question
For me aged 18 when my father dropped me at Uni and drove off.
For my son, aged 33, a married father of three kids when he and a cousin met at his house for the first time without the the 'grown ups'!!

Not yet!

Is it obligatory? I'm not keen.

For me I think it was when I realised the DH needed organising!

When I left home aged 19. My dad would always wait up for me if I went out in the evening and set a curfew, if I was a bit late even by a few minutes he would say" you,re not 21 yet young lady"! So I felt very adult after leaving home and being answerable to no-one but myself.