10 Ways You Know You Are a Grown-Up #thegoudalife

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Wendy’s®.

There are times when I sit back, look at my life, and wonder how the heck I got here. It seems like one minute I was scribbling Mrs. Jonathan Taylor Thomas all over every Lisa Frank notebook I owned and now I’m wiping snot from an endless spout also known as my toddler. Life moves by SO fast. And the funny thing is when you’re younger all you want to do is grow up and live the glamorous adult life. Until the moment hits- and it will, where you question how you got old so fast! Just in case you might in fact be wondering if you’ve crossed over into grown-up life, I’ve compiled a list of 10 ways to know you are a grown-up.

1. You excitedly want to watch the movie that as a child you claimed changed your life. Then after watching it you begin to question your 10 year old self’s taste and really start to doubt that girl and other things you “thought” she had taught you. Like the movie “My Girl”. Such a classic, I’ll give you that. I mean the mood ring industry boomed from that movie alone, but the moment I think to my little crazy 10 year old self that it might quite possibly be cool to live in a funeral home, I have done lost mind.

2. Drinking coffee is no longer a social or luxurious thing. Instead it’s a necessity from which life cannot happen UNTIL you have had a cup…or few. Long gone are the days when you’d walked down the halls as a senior with your travel mug acting like big stuff. I’d like to compare it to the moment men realize they now have chest hair. Yes, you know you’re big stuff then. Even though your cup only contained 2% coffee due to the excess of cream and sugar. Now I am all concerned about the amount of caffeine I can fit into one cup. Which brew will maximize my dosage and screw the cream and sugar, I can’t afford to add those calories to my diet.

3. Your favorite childhood game is now considered retro. How does that even happen? I mean I was ALL business when playing Candyland as a kid. In my mind I could strategize and beat my other opponents. Well nothing throws your competitive nature a punch in the stomach quite like what I found from Wikipedia:

“Candy Land (also Candyland) is a simple racing board game. The game requires no reading and minimal counting skills, making it suitable for young children.

Due to the design of the game, there is no strategy involved—players are never required to make choices, just follow directions. The winner is predetermined by the shuffle of the cards.”

Well now I think I’ve found a perfect game for my kids.

4. Daily calendars aren’t just for scribbling, marking out your dating calendar, or your high school’s football games. Now you live by the book, die by the book. You have work schedules, doctor appointments, school programs, soccer practice, and maybe IF you’re lucky there’s even time to sleep.

5. Everyone you know is having babies. You can no longer call up a friend at 10:30 at night to see if she wants to grab a bite to eat, or go to a midnight showing of the latest teen flick. So while you sit alone in the theatre watching half naked vampires profess their love to extremely pale and emotionally awkward females, she will be in bed after watching a big purple dinosaur dance with a couple of half naked little people running around. And don’t deny it, you’ll be jealous.

6. Like coffee was mentioned above, sleep is almost as important as oxygen is. For some reason we need MORE of it and yet seem to get LESS! Our mattress is too hard, the babies are crying, too much work to do, and the list goes on. It’s moments like these when you wish you had rain checks on all the naps you passed up as a kid. In fact as I put my kids down for naps now I tell them this, “You take a nap now, because one day you’ll look back on this moment and wish you had.” Yeah that’s right, they’ll thank me one day.

7. Spontaneous nights on the town have been replaced with scheduled “date nights” that include you and your spouse grocery shopping…alone. That my friends is the glamorous life.

8. You no longer understand the lingo. Once you’d laugh at adults who would stare at you like a deer caught in headlights as you described your ex as a “scrub”. Now you hear words like “ratchet” and “satchel” roll of of teen’s tongues and you try so hard to appear as if you know what they are saying, but honestly you haven’t a clue. It’s moments like these when your English classes pop back into your head and you frantically try to use context clues to decipher the “hidden code”.

9. Southern Living magazines arriving at your door are like gold. Almost like the days when you would slowly comb through each issue of Tiger Beat as to insure you didn’t miss a thing. And going back over JUST to be certain.

10. Fast Food leaves you in a conundrum. Though your busy schedule makes you dream about the ability to have food in your face in a matter of seconds, your taste buds cringe at the thought of another greasy cheap burger. You pick places like Wendy’s® where they have been introducing some really great, high quality menu items that include unexpected ingredients for fast food – like natural cheeses, aiolis and artisan breads – all at a really reasonable price. Like the mouth watering new Smoked Gouda Chicken on Brioche packed with flavors thick, creamy Dijon aioli with a tangy mustard finish, smoked, mild and rich Gouda cheese, sweet caramelized onion sauce made from puréed caramelized onions and much more!