I Can't Adult Today

A generation tries to draw the line between being regressive and investing in self-care

- Rehana Munir

It's been a hard morning. I discovered that The Namers Of All Things have put me in an indefensible category. "Elder millennial" (EM) is like that label you want to immediately tear off the back of your new shirt because it chafes the nape of your neck. The same article, in The Guardian, no less, claims that the 40s are one's saddest decade, especially in the case of elder millennials. They list sleep deprivation due to having small kids, and a lack of time for leisure activities, as reasons for unhappiness in one's fourth decade. Ever the outlier, I suffer from neither of these afflictions. I am, however, increasingly drawn towards the changing definition of adulthood from the slightly hazy prism of my early 40s.

The Tao of cuteness

Love is a verb, they say. So is adulthood, these days. The sheltering oak of adulthood-a sprawling stage of life that was generally used to describe any age over 18-has been violently uprooted. What we have, instead, are saplings of responsible behaviour that we plant and tend to every now and then, in a process we cutely call "adulting". (Being cute is a full-time job these days, in the way that being charming was a pre-occupation with our predecessors.) "I can't adult today" is a regular refrain on social media feeds.