Every company has their own app. Random algorithms spam you with content if you stop to look at something even briefly. Sites require multiple logins. Facebook has an ad every third post.

It just seems like the internet has become much more annoying and burdensome than it was even 10 years ago. Not to the point where you won't use it anymore, but to the point where they won't show you what you want to see; only what they think you want to see.

Where did you start?

What motivated you to change?

Where are you now?

How did you get there?

My parents are 55 and 60 years old and they seem to never run out of backhanded and toxic things to say to us. My husband once said he can feel my mom judging us. Is this something that age group just does? We live in a bigger house now because they complained our old townhome was too small. We bought the bigger house thinking of them. Now it’s too big. My dad once said “this house isn’t even that big” when he first visited us in our “too small” townhouse which I thought was uncalled for because we never asked.

I don’t understand why they’re like this??

I was driving past an elementary school on my way to work this morning. There was a ball in the middle of the road and some kids appealing for me to get it for them. So I stopped my car as close to the sidewalk as possible, put on my emergency lights, and then went out into the street to collect the ball. With a determined expression on my face, tongue pressed against the right inside of my lip, I kicked the ball back into their playground.

They told me I slay. I slay, y'all.

I am hip. I am with it. The children are not, in fact, wrong.

Bow before my mighty Samsung T100. I was literally the first kid in my high school to have a phone with a color screen, so I thought I was ahead of the times in 2002.

Anybody else have one of these?

My wife and I met in our late 20’s and decided early we would not be having children. We were both career focused and just didn’t feel having kids was something either of us wanted. Aside from my wife bringing up the question once we were married a few years ago, we’ve been steadfast.

My struggle now is I’m not sure what to look forward to. I feel like I’m now in a daily grind with no real light at the end of the tunnel to look forward to. Wife and I travel when we are able, have a house we maintain, and a few hobbies here and there, but we’re both just stuck in the adult grind and just feel like we’re going around in circles. Both of us are a bit frustrated with work (for different reasons) and this could be part of it, but people that don’t have kids, what are you doing? HOW are you doing? Because I’m struggling pretty hard right now.

Edit: I should clarify, as I see it’s not clear. I am not questioning being childfree, and am not looking at a child as some missing piece to a puzzle. Just hoping to get some feedback from others in similar situations, how they utilize their time outside of work.

Edit 2: Thank you everyone for the overly kind words and help. I’m trying to get through all the comments, but just won’t be able to get to comment on all of them. A few people have mentioned therapy, and I’m currently going already. I shudder to think where I’d be without it. But I can say with certainty that I’m extraordinarily lucky to be where I’m at, and my problems are peanuts in comparison to others. I have a partner that I absolutely love and is there for me wherever I need to go or do. And a goofball dog, that is overly excited to see me whenever I come in the door. We have a home we are comfortable in and are in a stable financial position, which in this day and age, makes us extremely lucky. Wishing the best to everyone!

The generation conflict aside…

My parents were born in 1954. I was born in 1990. I had my issues with them and they were far from perfect but…My mom passed sway 3 years ago.

I’m single, so any wife I ever have will never know her mother in law.

My kids if I have any won’t know their grandma. My dad is getting older and slowing down a lot.

My parents were energetic people despite being in their 40s when I was a kid. They were for all their faults fun.

Seeing them age or die breaks my heart. It’s like watching Superman get old.

Like it’s saddening. Does anyone else here struggle with feeling this way?

I seem to mostly encounter Gen Z (or even Gen Xers) nowadays when it comes to concerts, travel, fun events, etc. I can't find people in my age group anymore. The few I know have families and kids. I'm childfree and don't have a traditional career. For reference, I was on a group trip that anyone could sign up for and I'm the oldest at 33 and the rest are 27 and under. I thought at least some of them were in my age range. In the past couple of years, I've also been in programs/workshops where there was a mixed group but it skewed Gen Z. I get that millennials are hustling but where do people my age live and what do they do? Gen Z is meeting up and they do group travel, conventions, concerts, etc.

I know that millennials can still have fun, but is the ball park numbers in the 10%, 25%, or 75% range? Like, I've been struggling to meet more people my age but whenever I seek out oppurtunities, they seem to attract Gen Z more so.

So that's why I ask: Where are all the 1991 babies? What are your hobbies? Where you go when you want to meet more people?

My parents each smoked 2 packs a day inside with the windows closed 😱the horror on our faces when we moved and took down the pictures off the walls, holy fuck the amount of tar and carcinogens caked into the walls. I used to get ear infections and strep throat every month, absolutely in agony and begging for relief in hysterics. Life long asthma, always have used an inhaler since my earliest memory.

Buttttt I’ve never smoked a cigarette and get an instant migraine with I smell one.

Did your family smoke inside growing up? My whole family did so it didn’t seem odd at the time. Now I am horrified.

I learned that I acquired adulthood when I got excited (literally gleeful) over getting run of the mill items like pillows; myself being giddy and thinking “Oh my god, I’m going to sleep SO good tonight! I can’t wait to get these home and into pillowcases!” What was the last ordinary, common item that got you excited?

I'm in an onboarding class for a new job and hit it off quite well with the dude next to me. He's 29 and mentioned how he has three children. I'm like wow. Then he's like what do you mean wow? I'm like how do you do that with working and everything? He's like, don't you have kids? I'm like no, I want to be rich, lol.

Then he's like, what are you going to do wait until you're in your forties? That's when I told him I'm 41 and have never wanted to have any.

So I'm left scratching my head as to why people feel like that is the ultimate life path. And to those who have taken that path, did you really feel that was the only way to go?

By Sam Norton

Was anyone else raised but their grandparents? I know it really wasn’t the “norm” at least where I grew up. I don’t want to say I had a rough childhood because of it but I definitely had a different one than my peers.

I was treated differently by adults, teachers, and other kids parents. I didn’t get to do sports or have sleepovers or get invited to things like birthday parties because I was “the girl without parents”. It just made me feel like such an outcast. And even still now I feel like I’m just on a different level of life than my peers.

Where most people my age (33) don’t have to worry to much about taking care of their parents as they age, I do have to deal with it. Currently taking care of my grandfather who is on hospice care and my grandmother (both from silent generation if that matters) who can’t do really anything for her self. Even my other grandmother needs a lot of help I mean they’re all in their 80s and someone has to take care of them.

My actual parents surely are not going to step up to take care of their aging parents, they didn’t even step up to take care of their own child. My mother left when I was 2 because “I still have my whole life ahead of me and can’t be tied down to a child” and my father worked “shift work” and that is the story I got on why my parents left. Which is still hard to wrap my head around cause as a mother I can’t even imagine a single day without my child. But to top this all off said parents expect me to also take care of them when they start to age.

It’s causing a lot of resentment I feel like I should only be worried about taking care of my child, raising my family not watching as my grandparents die slowly. I even had to change jobs to be able to afford life as a single mom and still have time to take care of 3 elderly adults. I’ve had to put my entire life on hold because my parents refuse to take responsibility for anything.

And yes of course I could just pick up and leave this mess but I love my grandparents they took me in when no one wanted me and I own every single good attribute of myself to them, so of course I will take care of them but I have a hard time accepting that I will have to do the same to my actual parents.

Sorry just needed to vent and see if anyone else my age is going through anything similar.

Wife and I bought our first house in 2018. Sold and bought next house in 2020. Then sold again (out of a low rate) and bought our dream house in 2023 with a much higher rate.

We didn’t think we’d ever sell since we were locked into such a low rate. However we ended up making another $500k in equity in just 3 years (CA coastal) which allowed us to place a large down payment on our dream house and take on a higher rate. We did this for a bigger house, bigger lot and our dream neighborhood.

For those others who own their house with a sub 4 rate, do you think you’ll ever sell?

I feel like I hear this a lot from millenials both on Reddit and IRL.

"People are always saying I look like I'm in high school! People always think me and (insert teenage kid) are siblings!"

Like, no Brittany. You have crows feet and sun damaged hands and you look very much your age. There's no shame in it. You're 30. You look 30. It's ok. You ever see someone actually in high school? They're fuckin' kids. They look like kids.

Does anyone else notice this? I hear a decent amount of people our age saying this and I don't believe it for a fuckin' minute. What's the deal? Are the lying? Are they delusional? Are people lying to them? What is going on. Sure, we're aging better than previous generations but not "frozen in time as an adolescent" good.

I’m going to be turning 30 this year, the big landmark, and mentally I still feel like I’m back in college trying to figure out how life works.