Finally, I’m a grown-up.

How do I know this?

My entire adulthood from 18-48, I was never concerned about utility bills. I don’t recall a time when I was responsible for one. It wasn’t my “job” to pay bills. I was just a child in an adult body, not at all worried about the thermostat or the water usage or the back door left wide open or the refrigerator door left open to cool the kitchen. I know. I’m an anomaly.

I can remember Mom getting so ANGRY when we left the back door wide open in the heat of summer. I can remember leaving the water hose running until there were pools of water in the front yard to squish squish squish in bare feet. I can remember secretly “accidentally” bumping up or down the thermostat depending on my hotness or coldness.

However.

I have graduated into adulthood. How? I pay the utility bills now. With my very own paycheck. And I have become my MOTHER.

Can I tell you how incredibly annoying it is to walk into a restroom, ANY restroom ANYwhere, and realize that someone LEFT THE LIGHT ON. How utterly disgusted I am when I’m paying to COOL THE ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD. How horrifying to discover that human beings DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SHUT DE DOH. Even when it’s not my utility bill. Even at work. In a public facility. Oh my goodness people. TAKE SOME RESPONSIBILITY.

I get it now, Mom. Where’s that birthday cake for me. I’ve entered adulthood.

However, the child has not completely vanished. I still filled a trash can last night with food uneaten. Mom’s knack for using sour milk in recipes and skimming mold off of cheese and eating vegetables bendy and wrinkled…not so much on my agenda. Yet.

So, I am grateful that I am now a grown-up that gets it. Partially gets it anyway.

I am grateful that I have a paycheck to pay utility bills.

I am grateful that I have been granted responsibility to pay some of the bills.

I am grateful that there is enough to pay the bills. Unless the neighbors down the street would appreciate a cool afternoon on the patio, that is. Then, MOTHER will come out.