When did you first realise you were an adult?

when my uncle called with the news my aunt had died and I had to break it to my mother,her sister .I was 17 .Sadly we lost my granny and my other aunt within 3 weeks all my mothers female relatives.It was very tough on her and dad told us we had to be strong for her and be grown up about it .

When I left home at 20 and rented a flat on my own and was financially independent .

When I left school at 16 and started my first job and gave my mother money towards my keep and had to budget out of my tiny wages for clothes, fares, lunches, AND treats. ( not many of those with what I earned at the time )

I m waiting

I think I was the same as you TwiceasNice when I started earning at 16. It hit me like a bloomin’ wrecking ball when I had my son less than 2 years later though .

I haven't.

I was just 15 my Mum took me to an office and said I've got you an interview there in you go and left me there. I got the job

When I started work at 17 and could go and have my ears pierced. Mum had always said when I asked "When you're grown up and earning you can pay for it yourself" as she didn't approve.
I walked out of work on the Friday and straight into the jewellers.

When I first heard someone (in a reported conversation) refer to me as a woman, not a girl. I was about 26 at the time!

Possibly when DD1 was born and I really understood that her survival depended on me.

A couple of weeks after my 15 th birthday I was working in London as a trainee typist. There were 17 year olds in the office and i remember thinking that when I am 17 i would be grown up. When 2 years later that didn’t happen I had to think it out again.

tanith and yes, my mum like yours, too took me along for the interview.

On my 17th birthday a visitor who didn't know me asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I replied, 'I am grown-up'. I think my mother was a bit sceptical about that. There are several experiences that reinforce adult-hood: first full time job; first baby; death of a parent.

When I was 16 and I had to get up at silly o'clock to catch a bus across town to work in the hospital.

When I had to give my mother half of my first pay packet. I was left with £2/10!

When I left school, and went away to university and for the first time I was away on my own and nobody knew what I was doing. I was in charge of my life for good or for ill.

Being told by a work colleague, at 17, that I was far too old to sing along with the Sound of Music number: "I am 16, going on 17. I know that I'm naive..."

It was OK to sing along with any of the other songs, apparently, so it wasn't my voice quality.

Seriously, though, leaving home and finding I had to do two jobs (£8pw ft and £4pw pt) just to pay rent, food, clothes, bus fares etc. Also at a still-fairly-naive 17.

I didn’t know anyone who went or had gone to university...everyone I knew left school at 15 unless they ‘stayed on’ til 16. It was most unusual to go to university even into the mid/late 80’s only 6% of population had a degree.

Apprenticeships were highly regarded, teachers, nurses and physios/occupational therapists all went to college and learned on the job.

Think I may have gone slightly off subject.

I became an adult when I stopped blaming my parents for my problems.

The first night when I left home to go to uni. My Father had dropped me and my stuff off and I joined others in the Pub.....in the pub, YEA! I knew that I could drink myself silly and go back to my bed and no one would say........' and what time do you think this is'
Of course there were other life changing situations but I remember the excitement of that night so vividly.

When my dad died, I came to the realisation that I was no longer anyone's child and was finally an adult!

I was 25 when my in-laws' house burnt down. I dealt with insurance, house clearance, councillors and MPs to get them rehoused and settled. They all treated me like an adult, & I thought 'At last, I'm grown-up'

I thought I was at 18 when I got a live-in job at a large London Hotel.

At my first job interview. I made my own way there without my Dad acting as a taxi driver and felt very grown up in my cream suit! (Got the job as well! )