With the rise of boomerang kids and the increasing prevalence of 30-year-old interns, it appears we’re growing up slower and slower, seemingly trapped as overgrown teenagers well into our supposedly adult lives.
It's easy to despair and quarter-life crises are all too common in the sometimes directionless times of young adult life.
But perhaps we’re all actually doing better than we thought - sure, we may not own properties or be married with three children, two dogs and a Volvo, but there’s a lot more to being a grown-up than that.
Here are the most common signs you’re successfully adulting:
1. You batch-cook. Yes, you plan ahead, make a vat of your famous sausage and bean casserole, then pop two portions in the fridge and three in the freezer, so you know you’ll always have a nutritious, balanced meal to hand (for which you'll thank past you).
2. You iron your clothes. Sure, you may only do your work clothes and it may always be five minutes before you need to put them on, but baby steps.
3. You polish your shoes. God forbid you go out with scuffed leather on your feet.
4. You keep stamps in your wallet. All the time.
5. You like grown-up foods like olives, goats cheese and mussels.
6. You floss, and not only after you’ve eaten a nectarine (because of course you get your five-a-day) and have stringy bits between your teeth.
7. You have an actual full-time permanent job where you earn money. Not an internship, a proper grown-up form of employment with spreadsheets and a commute.
8. You have to pay taxes and bills and pension payments (and you still cry inside when you realise quite how much of your salary you’ll never see).
9. You buy houseplants (which you look after), batteries, bin bags, liquid hand soap and plasters.
10. You prefer pubs to clubs, and sometimes your sofa is the most preferential of all.
11. You host dinner parties, and sometimes they don’t even end in absolute drunken debauchery. You might even have fancy candles, crockery and napkins too.
12. You own non-stick pans, decent cooking knives and a blender (which you use for smoothies and soups, not just cocktails).
13. You separate your whites from your colours when doing laundry, and you even use fabric conditioner too.
14. You know how to bleed a radiator, put up picture frames and unblock a drain.
15. You empty the bin instead of waiting for your mum/dad/housemate to do it.
16. You have guest towels which you wash after each guest has stayed, not just before the next one1 arrives.
17. You clean, and not just wiping surfaces and hoovering the carpet, because no one wants to live in a hovel now, do they?
18. You don’t go into your overdraft. You may even have a budget. Which you stick to.
19. You’re appalled by the skimpy clothing worn by teenagers. If they don’t put a scarf on they’re bound to catch their death of cold. Honestly.
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