Twenty-nine

Thoughtful Moment: Being a grown-up is more than just how old you are.

I’ve been watching people lately.  How they behave, how they treat others.  And something I’ve noticed, is that sometimes, the people who claim the loudest to be “a grown-up”… are the most childish in how they treat people.

Real grown-ups don’t have to tell people that they’re adults.  Their actions speak for them.

Take for instance, my daughter’s future mother-in-law.  She proclaims loudly and often how grown up she is, and how she feels that EldestDaughter and her fiance are not.

And yet, she berates them both, with cruelty, about how they’re irresponsible, lazy, etc., ad nauseum. She screams when she doesn’t get them to do things her way. And still, she thinks that as long as she smiles and tosses them a polite word later, all will be forgiven and forgotten.

Another instance, when a parent neglects the needs of their children, even to not checking weather & road conditions, when their other parent, her ex, is trying to get them home safely.

Still another example, when supposed “adults” act in a petty, spiteful manner towards someone they work with, just so they can feel as though they have something to make them feel more powerful than the co-worker.

Adults, real adults, don’t accept this kind of behavior, nor do they perpetuate it. I know that it’s oh so tempting to stoop to the same, petty level. I know it’s hard to have to try to get beyond and above this.

But there are ways to get your point across, and still be a grown-up.

I’m looking for mine. I will not stoop to the same, childish level of behavior.

I will be an adult if it kills me.