The family gathered in the loungeroom, excitedly unwrapping our gifts. My mother got Nintendo DS accessories and little electronic gadgets. My stepfather got Bundy Rum paraphenalia. My nieces got DVDs and toys. They all got at least a half dozen presents each, half of them from me. I got two pairs of shorts… And I was happy. OMG, I’m the adult here!

-The Shampyon

Two weeks ago, I met a new co-worker who happened to be from a major city that I had lived in as an exchange student 18 years ago.  I mentioned that I had visited there recently and was suprised by how much both the downtown and outlying areas had changed in all that time.  I asked him if he had ever hung out at certain bars in the city or wherever.  He said, “I didn’t really know that scene, I was… uh… 4 years old.”

I don’t think I will ever get used to such incidents.  Ack.

-R. “BCR” Lewis

When I was around 21, I chaperoned a youth group to a church camp. Somehow our group of girls got two rooms on a hall full of boys rooms. Our group decided to have a pizza party in my room full of girls. We invited a couple of guys from another group to eat pizza with us and our guys group plus the other female and male group leaders. The next day the other guys came to hang out in our room with just us girls and one of their male chaperones (probably my age) yelled at them and told them to leave because their boys weren’t allowed in girls’ rooms. He was lecturing us and finally said “Where’s your group leader?” and my younger sister leaned and said “That’s you.” and that’s when I realized OMGI’MTHEADULTHERE.

-Nikki McRae

I was 19, sitting on the edge of my bed, peering into the bassinet where my newborn son was sleeping.   I realized in an instant that I was responsible for his well being, for his life, and I thought OMG I’m the Adult.   He will be 44 the end of February 2010.

- Lani Roberts

I was visiting family at Christmas and was the only other person home besides the family’s 12-year-old daughter.  She came up to me and asked permission to go to her friend’s house.  OMGIMTHEADULTHERE.

-Rachel Hendery

I used to work in Matalan, a discount clothing chain and once on the shop floor i was puttng some stock out when i overheard “… go and ask that man over there” i quickly looked around to see what man they were talking about… and it was me OMGIMTHEADULT

-Mark Rushworth

My wife and I are at the retro-arcade for our biweekly Dance Dance Revolution competition, surrounded by people playing video games we were feeding quarters into well before they were born. As in the late ’70s. Waiting for more change, my wife mutters, “I bet we’re the oldest people in this place. I feel so old.” The woman in front of us overhears and turns and says, “I know! I’m thirty!”

So were we, years ago. OMGWERETHEADULTS.

-Julian Smith

I was filling out an expected-costs form at work for a business trip I had to take – my first one solo. It suddenly struck me that I was going to tell my boss “Yeah, I’m going to be spending a couple grand on this thing” and he was just going to sign off on that, and I was going to go and toss thousands of dollars in food and plane tickets and a hotel onto the company card.

Ah, crap, now I’m an adult.

- Ben Novak

Tonight (Christmas Eve) my husband(!!) and I are taking my folks and siblings out to dinner.  Then everyone is gathering at my house for presents and dessert.  On top of this, I’ve invited friends over for all this merriment.  I’m hosting the holidays this year.  I’m the one responsible for all the festivities. OMG IM THE ADULT.

-Marisa

Hey! We got onto to Metafilter!
I have several memories and this constantly comes up for me as I’ve slowly realized I’ve actually become an adult.

- When I was about 19 I grabbed a basketball and was shooting at the local park on a Saturday and a 12 year old kid came up and asked if he could shoot too, calling me sir, and then asked me how college was. That blew my mind.

- When I was 25, fresh out of college with my first real job and my older brother called to say he was so broke he couldn’t afford his daily required medication, and I paid for two months of the stuff. I get one or two calls like that a year from him and I’m happy to help out (the first time was the point I realized I became the Older Brother in the relationship).

- This, posted an hour ago, seriously. I’ve never had to put much effort into hiding presents before but this required planning. I bought it early, left it at the bike shop, had to come home and make sure my daughter was distracted, then cover it up and stash it in the corner of the garage, all the kinds of things my parents used to do because my brother and I would rifle through every inch of our house looking for presents in the month lead-up to xmas.

-Mathowie

Click the link for more OMG I’M THE ADULT stories.

At 25, my Friday nights have begun to wind down from all-night partying to late dinners at a quiet restaurant, catching up on Grey’s Anatomy episodes, and quite frequently, passing out on the couch, exhausted and fully-clothed. One Friday, after a late night dinner, I lingered in my car for a few minutes looking for something to play on my iPod. Suddenly I saw this car backing up behind me–fast and a little too close for comfort. And then at that split second I knew it was going to happen; this crazy ass driver was going to hit my car. And of course it did. I stepped out of my Hyundai, annoyed but calm. The car stops in the middle of the parking lot and a teenage girl comes running up to me. “Oh my god, oh my god, i’m sorry, I didn’t see you,” she says. How could you not see me, I wasn’t moving? We examine my bumper together, desperately trying to erase scratches with our bare hands. “Are you going to call the cops?” she asked me. “Are you drunk?” I asked her. “No, I’m not! I just came from a 3-hour classical concert and it totally messed with my head.” OMGIMTHEADULTHERE.

-Kris Alcantara

Six Word Memoir.

Sign on the dotted line.

I became my Mother’s legal guardian.

-Joe Molinari

I was in my early twenties, working at an Alzheimer/Dementia unit during my undergraduate years. I always worked until 11pm. The nurse worked until 5pm, leaving around 20 residents in the hands of three unqualified, college-aged kids. It was close to 11pm when I heard shouting down the hall, which was not uncommon, but I ran down there–also realizing the other two were outside on a cigarette break. Walking in the room, I was greeted with a woman on the floor splattered in blood (from a fall, we later realized) and four other residents standing around her, concerned. I looked at them for a possible explanation when one pointed at me and said, “Why would you hurt this woman?” convincing the others that I was to blame. As I tried to console the woman on the floor, the others started pushing me away. It was me against four adults, all in their late sixties. I quickly realized, OMGIMTHEADULT.

-Nicole Lane

I was one year out of college and on a date with an older guy. He apologized for his empty living room. Explained that his ex-wife had gotten all of the furniture in the divorce. I was stunned into silence, but not because he was a divorced man. I was stunned because I WAS OLD ENOUGH to date someone who was divorced, who owned a house, and who used to have living room furniture that hadn’t been pilfered from an alley or his parents’ basement.

-Jeanmari

After nearly a decade of being a university student in some form or another, I applied and landed a position as a sessional lecturer in Engineering.  The course just so happens to be an agglomeration of all of the industrial and academic experience I’ve had thus far, exactly my cup of tea.  My students are in the first term of 3rd year, and so this is 99% completely new material to them.  I’m the adult here.

~Liz Gusta

Today I rode my Schwinn Stingray past an elementary school as it released it’s student body. The little kids hollared “LOOKIT HER BIKE!” and “I LIKE YOUR SOCKS!” I shyly ducked my head the same way I do when drunk frat boys and Midwestern dads yell at me out of the windows of their SUVs, and then I remembered, “hey, I’m the adult here!”

-Lorena Caiazoo

I just wrote the intern a Letter of Recommendation. OMG I’M THE ADULT HERE.

-Alena Cason

I was subbing in a middle school and all of the students were waiting outside for permission to come into the room. Then I realized **OMG I’M THE ADULT HERE and they’re waiting for /me/ to let them in.

-Chris Osborne

I was working as a cashier in a glorified farmstand and a woman said to her child, “Give the lady your candy so she can ring it up” and I thought, “I’m not ‘the lady’–omg, I AM.”

-Lisa Michaud

The first time I had that moment I was 19, and with an 18-year-old, and the two of us had been given a dozen kids, six canoes, and some food and had been assigned to take out an overnight canoe trip in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. While the two of us late adolescents were helping a couple kids figure out a set of tent poles, another faction of kids headed down to the bluff over the river, got another kid into a mummy bag, zipped him up, pulled the face drawstring shut, and began rolling him down the bluff into the river, where he would have helplessly flailed as his sleeping bag filled with water. We caught this just in time, raced down to the water’s edge, released the kid in the mummy bag, and delivered a severe lecture to the other kids.

But at some point I realized, Jesus Lord. I have a whole bunch of other people’s kids and we’re in the freaking wilderness and it’s about to go Lord of the Flies on me. And I’m the Adult Here.

-Miko via Metafilter

When a woman asked her to move aside at the store, by saying, “Let that man through.”

-M. Ahmad via email

Kid in the classroom I’m working in just asked me if he could go to the bathroom. OMG I’M THE ADULT HERE.
-Jessamyn West via Twitter