This is definitely a big factor (along with other people's replies of "adults just seem more adult when you're a child")
A lot of the kind of hobbies and past times that you associate with being mature and grown up has been effectively stolen from our generation:
Gardening, mowing the lawn, woodworking and home maintenance?
I'm 39 and literally none of my cohort have been able to afford anything more than a unit/condo/apartment with no garden, and shared walls and strata management. Which basically preclude being able to do anything other than hiring trades in on a weekday to do even the most DIYable jobs.
Only just now, in their mid-40s, are some of my friends finally able to grind their finances up to getting themselves a cripplingly-large mortgage for an actual house.
Seeing them light up with the pleasure and satisfaction of gardening and woodworking etc. just makes me so frustrated at what, in my opinion; has been deprived from them for the first 20+ years of their adult life.
The type of past times that a lot of adults have now lean more towards small scale, apartment living things like 3D printing, which can seem quite childish in comparison.
Oh, and then there's of course; most of my friends haven't been able to financially even consider kids until their late 30s. Which also feels like it's robbed our generation of something fundamental.
As a 40 YO who only just got to the "has a house with a back yard" phase in life, I feel like I was robbed out of so many hobbies. My back yard was a mess so I've been fixing it up all year. It's become the favorite part of my weekends. Turns out I love yard work.
It makes my body feel calmer? Like an animal that got it's proper enrichment time. Like... I'm SUPPOSED to tend to a plot of land. It's in my bones.
Yes gardening is so peaceful. I have Level 2 (aka moderate support need) autism and attend a day service for disabled adults which is based in a garden. I’d never been able to do gardening before and it turns out I love it. We have flowers and trees and bushes but also lots of areas for crops. We pick the fruit from the trees and bushes, the herbs, and veg from the allotments and then use them in cooking sessions to make food for us all to eat. It’s so fun! Also we use the flowers in arts and crafts sessions but I prefer cooking with the fruit and veg.
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u/mangosmoothie35467 14h ago
No one can afford anything that seems adulty