The Trouble With "Adulting"

Maybe I'm just imagining things, but it feels like "adulting" is getting harder and harder!

I say that, as I try to objectively evaluate whether the process of living as a responsible adult in today's world is any more difficult than it used to be say 20 or 50 years ago.

The reluctant conclusion I keep arriving at is that you basically are getting less mileage for your money, so to speak.

For those of us who are not still freshly scrubbed youngsters with loads of energy, the end result is that it feels like every day ends with the realization that no matter how hard you worked it wasn't enough to actually cover your daily required allotment of "adulting".

Instead of evaluating the situation in terms of money, I instead choose to look upon it from the perspective of effort and hours of work required to check something off the "adulting list of things that must be accomplished."

Consider something like my electric bill. When I was in my early thirties, it required — on average — about 5 to 6 hours of work to make enough money to pay the electric bill. Today, it requires about 10 to 12 hours of work to make enough money to pay the electric bill.

While my income has definitely increased over that time period, the cost of electricity has increased considerably more, but that's not all. The number of devices in the house that consume electricity has also increased and so overall consumption of electricity has increased.

While I recognize that the second part of that equation is — to some degree — optional (after all we choose whether to have an assortment of electric kitchen gadgets and electronic game controllers and TVs), it's just part and parcel of our life that there's more stuff and it costs more money to keep running.

I suppose the easy answer would be that you can just opt out if you don't feel comfortable with the expenses, and while that's true on the surface the deeper truth there is that the way society and life is now set up it becomes considerably inconvenient and more time consuming if you want to buck the popular trend of "what is expected of a you" when all you're doing is try to live a normal life.

Lately, I have been increasingly choosing to opt out of all kinds of small subscriptions that undoubtedly contribute to making me slightly more informed while setting me back anywhere from $1.99 a month to maybe $10 a month.

Typically, they are marketed to us on the premise that they cost less than a cup of coffee, but when you add up enough cups of coffee in the course of a month it becomes a chunk of change! Maybe even a chunk of change big enough to pay that electric bill!

So how have we been talked into busting ourselves so much?

Probably the same way many things are sold to us: we're promised a brighter future if only we put in the effort now. But the problem with always looking towards a brighter future is the fact that you never have time to be here to enjoy the present.

One of the measures I think is pretty accurate, in terms of assessing whether "adulting is getting harder is the fact that there is a sharp rise in multi-generational households, as well as a sharp rise in the number of young people in their twenties and even thirties who live at home with their parents.

At least that's what I'm observing here in the USA.

And I'm not saying that as a criticism! I'm merely bringing it up as a reflection of fact.

I don't know what the future holds, but I'm pretty sure that the societal structure over the next 20 years or so is going to change considerably.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Do you think what is required to be "a responsible adult" takes more effort than it used to? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2026.02.11 13:35 PST
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