The holidays this year were pretty good overall. Kept busy, saw people I enjoy spending time with. Opted out of a NYE outing (I already saw Bombshell and don’t eat oysters or drink alcohol) and binge-watched The Good Doctor. Still and all, I took down the tree two days after Christmas and had boxed up all the decorations and returned the house to order by the weekend.
So it’s a quiet New Year for me so far. Which will end shortly when my upstairs neighbors return. They’ve been gone since the Sunday before Christmas and it has been blessedly silent. I keep trying to fashion in my mind a non-threatening way to approach them with requests to be more mindful of how inadequate the flooring between our units is at muffling ANY noises. I rely on my Boise Noise Cancelling headphones in the morning and evening. Even sleep with them on my head because of how excessively squeaky the floor is and how early (sometimes 6am) they get up and about their day.
Well, enough of that. Forward.
Over lunch Monday, a friend asked if I’d heard anything about “adulting classes” which were being offered to millennials to teach them basic living skills.
Adulting: the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks. Oxford Dictionary
Adulting (v): to carry out one or more of the duties and responsibilities expected of fully developed individuals (paying off that credit card debt, settling beef without blasting social media, etc). Exclusively used by those who adult less than 50% of the time. Urban Dictionary
Apparently, this has trend emerged on Twitter back in 2017 but I guess you’d have to be a damn regular Twitter user to notice #adulting was a hot topic.
A May 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 32.1 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 live at home. (In the 1960s, only 20 percent young adults lived with their parents.) Many of us don't need to worry about going to the grocery store alone because our parents' fridge is already stocked. We don't have to think about paying the cable bill because our parents have it covered. Cosmopolitan
All of this is odd because one of my 2020 aspirations is to begin being more conscientious about basic living skills. Being less lazy about folding laundry as soon as it is dry rather than leaving it for days in the dryer. vacuuming once a week, Keeping better track of my finances and putting myself on a budget. It would be nice if they had ‘adulting’ classes for seniors, particularly those of us who live alone and don’t often cook much.
January has always been my least favorite month, dating back to childhood which involved returning to school for one of the longest months of the year with all the festivities behind you and Valentine’s Day or a vacation day far in the future.
Seems this post gives rise to numerous questions which would make for interesting interaction below.
- How were your holidays?
- What movies did you see at the end of the year?
- What’s your favorite/least favorite month of the year?
- Have you ever heard of adulting?
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