The scariest part of becoming an adult is not making your own doctor’s appointment or having to learn how to do taxes. It’s that children will now see you as an adult and rely on you for help and protection.
A comedian once told a story where his son came into his bedroom at night and said he was scared because he heard a sound outside. The comedian said “Oh shit we better get an adult. Oh no. I’m the adult” and the first time this new role as expected protector of children really became clear for me was when my neighbor’s daughter knocked on my door and asked me to come help her and her friend get a dog back into the house.
Long story short my neighbor was running a small dog recuse for Eastern European street dogs and one got outside while the kids were home alone. They had managed to corner it in the front garden but had been told to never touch it for their own safety. As I followed the girl into the garden I heard her yell to her friend “I got an adult!” and I had the same feeling as the comedian “Oh no. I’m the adult” It turned out to be a midsized dog that could have hurt me but very unlikely to kill me and luckily it wasn’t aggressive at all and the situation was easily solved.
Since then I’ve been in several situations where children have looked to me for help or protection, including strangers. And I know people will want to rant about how parents should be more protective of their children but that’s not the point. When you’re an adult you’re a real shithead if you don’t help young children because they are completely reliant on adults for survival and sometimes that can be scary but you’re an adult now so at the very least you have to get them somewhere safe. One time a young boy approached be at a bus stop because a group of older teenagers had stolen his phone and were now following him. Groups of teenage boys can be fucking monsters and I was probably as scared as him but I took a photo of the group in the messenger app which meant the image was immediately sent to my friend, which made them back off when they realized they had no way of getting out of it. I ended up following the boy home. It was terrifying and I missed my bus but that’s the scariest part of being an adult we never consider as children.