A Thought on "Adulting" - Is it Holding You Back?

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"Coffee because adulting is hard." " I don't want to adult anymore. Let's be mermaids."

You might hear or see these words quite often in society today.  "Adulting" is a fairly new term, coined by Millennials to help them cope with their responsibilities.  It's become very popular over the years, and I've found a lot of people have strong opinions on it.  I honestly haven't found myself using "adulting" in my everyday conversations, but it has been on my mind a bit these past few days.

Time Magazine actually has a pretty good article about it, and I think they comment on it fairly well.  They define "adulting" as "to behave in an adult manner; engage in activities associated with adulthood."  I think that's a definition most of us can get behind.  The article also says that it's a way for our generation to recognize and handle our transition into adulthood.  What I found interesting is that we Millennials are doing stuff later than previous generations (e.g.:  buying a house, getting married, maybe even graduating college), which actually made a lot of sense when I thought about it.  So our generation has come up with this term to kind of distance ourselves from who we actually consider "adults" because we're still in the early parts of the transition, whereas previous generations have been through many "adult" things by the time they were our age.

I think the ones who use "adulting" the most believe they're practically far from it and are using it as kind of a satirical topic to show that they're trying to continue on in their transition.  To them, the fact that it looks like they have their shit together like an adult should but they don't feel like they do is funny.  I can totally relate to this, and I feel that everyone can agree that we never 100% have our shit together.  Even Beyonce.

On the other hand, people think it's a way of escapism and that the ones who use the word a lot are childish.  To them, using "adulting" in reference to how you got gas in your car instead of watching another episode of The Office or going to the grocery store to get food actually downplays these normal things, and in addition, things that you should be applauded for (like taking care of your mental or physical health by seeing a doctor).

I guess I could say I'm Switzerland.  Personally, I don't have any issues with the word, don't use it, and don't really feel the need to.  What do you guys think?  Do you like using "adulting" or are you against it?

Quote of the day:  "Caffeine is always a good idea."