Can you imagine going through life where "adulting" is a stretch goal?

When Michigan made weed legal they put no restrictions on billboard advertising, and hence all the billboards that weren't already taken by personal injury lawyers are now weed shops. The worst one I've seen features a woman slumped down on the floor in front of her couch, head in hands, hair draped over her face. The giant sized font simply reads: "Adulting is Hard". Goddam fucking right adulting is hard, and we shouldn't have that word in our lexicon, because its very existence is an affront to everything that has come before.

I am aware of the drastic changes that have taken place in society since I was a kid, but as an undergrad I literally worked as a night janitor in my friend's restaurant, because that was the only time I had to work. It sucked. I was always fearful that someone I knew passing on the busy street outside might see me inside swabbing the floor and think that this is my life. Never even told my parents that's what I was doing for money. But I did it. Swallowed my pride hard and did it.

That's how I want my kids to think, independent of how the other kids think. I want my kid at age 4 to feel confident enough to ride his bike to the neighbor's house down the street and around the corner. I want them to feel like they can solve simple problems without resorting to asking for help as a first reaction. There's nothing more liberating that making your own way in the world, and to the extent my kids don't do that, I will feel like a failure.