Are you an adult?

I am in my mid-thirties. I manage a team of people in a frequently high-pressure industry. I am a wife to a wonderful husband and a mother to a chaotic (aka normal) five year old. But sometimes I do not feel like an adult.

It turns out that adulthood is a fluid concept. It cannot be attached to age or job situation or even to if you've made it out of your parent's house. Some people feel like adults at a very young age. Others go back and forth - depending on their life situations.

My son, for example, likes to tell me that when he is a grown up he is still going to live with me. (And I am OK with that.)

Because here's the thing: Adulthood is a personal state of mind. For everyone. And that can be shocking if you think about it too hard.

When we are children, we look to the adults around us for answers, for guidance and for help. We look to them to make the decisions and tell us how to make sense of the world. We look to them to be, well...adults.

But the truth is, there are days when we do not feel that way. There are lots of days when we are still surprised that we are in charge. We don't have the answers. We are going to want to play, too.

And that is also OK.

At what age did you start feeling like an adult? Tell me in the comments.