Top 10 Reasons Being an Adult SUCKS

Living with your parents for your whole life really sets you up for disappointment once you move out on your own. Until you get your own place, you don’t realize how fast your house gets dirty, and unless you can afford to hire a maid, guess who’s doing the cleaning! And the cooking, and the laundry... And if you can’t cook, well, then you better get used to eating boxed mac and cheese and peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. Basically, all those things you took for granted growing up are now your responsibility. And when you have kids? Not only do you have to do everything for yourself, but now you’re in charge of someone else’s life, too.

As a kid, you were so excited for your birthday. You felt like with every year added to your age, the more responsibilities and respect you had from your peers. But once you hit your twenties, you start to wish for LESS responsibility. As a kid, you want a birthday party with all your friends, with balloons and presents and cake. As an adult, you can have all the cake and balloons you want, but your friends are too busy to come. Or, if they can make it, you get presents like oven mitts and socks, and you don’t want to eat the cake anyway, because it goes straight to your hips.

Kids may make fun of their parents for being out of touch with what’s cool, but they often forget that one day, that will be them. There’s no avoiding it – someday we all become those confused adults scratching our heads at the things our kids like and the music they listen to. And don’t get us started on trends; from Pog to Pokémon, what entertains one generation baffles the next. And then there’s technology: even the simplest of innovations has the power to amaze and intimidate. Just remember: no matter how trendy you were when you were young, when you become an adult, your destiny is literally to be uncool.

The one thing that’s inevitable for every single one of us is that when we reach a certain age, our body starts to turn on us. It’s called... 30. Whether it’s illness or just the unfortunate side effects of aging, we all eventually get slower, weaker, and grow more tired. Our skin gets wrinkled, our hair turns gray, things start to sag, and hangovers hurt more than they used to... which is another big part of why adults begin to dread their birthdays. One day, you’re trying your hardest to look older and not get ID’d, the next you’re dyeing your hair and dying to get ID’d. You might be able to hide your aging, but things like hypertension, arthritis and other illnesses that often come with age can’t be so easily ignored.

Along with other signs of aging, a big part of growing up is watching what you eat. As a kid, you could constantly eat chocolate, candy, soda, and all sorts of junk food without really thinking about what you’re putting in your body. But as an adult, your metabolism generally slows down and you find that you can’t eat the way you used to – at least, not without consequences. Even when your diet consists of salads and Metamucil, you still have to work out regularly to keep the weight off. What we wouldn’t give to eat a bag of chips without thinking twice about it…

What’s worse than being 30, not being married and not having kids? Everyone you know constantly reminding you that you’re 30, not married and don’t have kids. Loved ones start questioning why you’re still single, and when you’re planning on settling down to start a family. As if the sound of your biological clock ticking isn’t enough to keep you up at night, the pressure to satisfy those around you almost becomes too much. And if you think dating as an adult is hard, try making friends when most of the time you’re either working or sleeping... You want to find a balance between work, friends, family, and time for yourself, but sometimes it seems like an impossible goal to reach.

Work is a big part of our adult lives and a job isn’t just something you do to have money. You work because if you don’t, you’d still be living with your parents. You need money for rent, bills, food, transportation, and other necessities. And when you have kids, you work because you need to afford food, clothes, toys, and school for them. But what if you hate your job? Well, you just have to grin and bear it because you can’t afford to quit. And let’s face it – unless you’re really lucky, most of people don’t love their jobs.

Forget about science, history, and geography in schools - yes, those are important, too, but what they should really be teaching young people is how taxes work! It’s fair to say that most teenagers enter adulthood without a clue about how to file their taxes. And when you do find out what taxes are all about, you wish you’d never known in the first place. Because the one thing everyone does know about them is that they suck. You get so excited when you get that paycheck...you open it up...and then you feel like you’ve been robbed. It’s a hard truth to accept, but taxes are just a necessary – though annoying – part of life.

The best part about school was always the three months of freedom. Yes, summer vacation is what students everywhere look forward to almost immediately after the school year begins. When you stop going to school and enter the workforce, you realize there’s no more summer vacation– well, unless you’re a teacher. But at least you get a few weeks paid vacation to travel somewhere where it’s always summer... Similarly, you look forward to the idea of no more homework, but instead find yourself spending that time cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids, or something other than what you’d really like to be doing.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Mid-Life Crisis
- Mortgages / Affording Your Own Place
- Student Debt

After you groan at the amount of your salary that’s lost to taxes, you get excited again at the prospect of spending the rest of the money you’ve earned. But then you remember: you need to pay the bills first. Not only do you need to pay your landlord in exchange for, you know, letting you live in your apartment – or the bank if you’re lucky enough to have a mortgage – there are bills for literally everything. Electricity, water, TV, Internet, phone...and you need to pay them every month. That’s not even counting what you shell out for food and transportation. All that money you make? Well, don’t get too attached to it.

Do you agree with our list? What do you miss most about being a kid? For more entertaining top 10s published every day visit WatchMojo.com.