When did you first realise you were an adult?

At 50 when my dad died and I became an orphan. I think you're always a child whilst your parents are alive.

When at 17 I passed my Driving Test 1st time & bought my 1st car (Penny Insurance Policy would pay out at 18) with a Bank Loan guaranteed by my Mum. I lived-in as a waitress & my Parents lived in a small village. The freedom to go where I wanted, when I wanted provided I could pay for the petrol Petrol at 6/8 per gallon.

At 17 when I left school and my mum said go get a job - I had expected to have my 6 weeks summer holidays first ?. It was fully driven home when I realised later that year that I had to go back to work the day after Boxing Day. Many years later I was grateful to get out of the house and actually work on Boxing Day!

Well, I'm 73 and still waiting...

I think it was when I started work as an office junior. I earned £4.10.0 a week and had to give mum half of it. Then my busfares came out of the rest. Somehow I managed to save enough to buy a new outfit once a month. I also felt very grown up when I had my first baby in Germany. I had no family to turn to, so I had to struggle though.

When I started work aged 15.

I realised in my teens that I had crossed over to adulthood when I voluntarily sat and chatted to a distant and very prim relative who came to visit instead of skulking off to my room to wait until she'd gone!

I think I started to pretend to be an adult when my daughter was born and gradually progressed to actually being one. Nowadays my daughters are the adults and look after me as though I'm the child. I'm 70 and completely fit and able with a husband and plenty of hobbies but still I feel like the infant with my girls.

I’ve racked my brain and I honestly don’t know the answer to this question.

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.

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

Is it obligatory? I'm not keen.

Not yet!

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'!!

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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

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.

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

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!

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.???

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.