My childhood ended when I could finally understand the Hobbes’ quote “Homo homini lupus est”, when I could finally understand the existence of these shadows inside humans (including myself), when I could finally see those shadows right away. My childhood ended when I realized what humanity and society are, when I realized how simpler would it be if humans had stuck being hominins. My childhood ended when this thing, called “sentience”, powered itself on inside my brain, condemning me to understand things that I wished I couldn’t understand. My childhood ended, the kid inside myself is long dead, and now I’m a zombie, a Mortuus-vivens.

Christmas becomes a deadline.

At one point when I was in my mid to late-twenties, my workplace’s neighbor had their sprinkler system fail and flood their business. It was so bad that a bunch of water seeped under the adjoining wall and we had about a half an inch of water across a third of our fairly large store. There were maybe a dozen or so of us working there at the time, and we all got called in to rapidly move merchandise out into a big truck so that it wouldn’t get spoiled by the damp air before the remediation guys could do their thing.

So there’s all of these people, most of them younger than me, but not by a lot, running back and forth with crates of merchandise, and I looked around and immediately saw how chaotic and inefficient it was.

So I said, “Okay, you stand by the truck. You stand by the front door, you stand just inside. You stand a little further in than that. The first person just picks up a crate, and we bucket brigade it all out to the truck.”

It was an obvious solution, and it made the work go by so much faster and easier, but apparently I was the only one who thought to do it. I realized that in that moment, in a moderately large group, I was the most responsible adult in the room.

And I’m pretty sure that was when my childhood ended.

My childhood never really began. I was a toddler, then i was a mini adult, having to “watch your brother!¡!¡!” everytime my parents wanted to have fun.

I was one of those kids that adults said was “mature for your age”. Except, it wasn’t maturity, it was fear of my parents.

So for me, childhood ended the first time my parents told me to become a third parent for their child.

Yes I’m still bitter about it, so i won’t call out the down votes on this one

I’m not sure when my childhood ended but I’d say my adulthood began the day I bought my first lawn mower

I become 20 next year… Yeah, that’s probably a good indicator

When your favorite sports team’s stars are younger than you.

I left for college at 18, but that wasn’t it for me. It was one month later when my parents announced a divorce and I realized my home life would never be the same. College still felt big and scary, but I couldn’t even go back to the comforts of my childhood ever again.

When the aliens who secretly physically resemble demons show up to help your entire species reach their next phase of evolution, ascension to a higher plane of existence.

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. -C.S Lewis

following this i would say when you stop wanting to be grown-up. and that certainly tracks for me

The kid that wants to hold his mom’s hand and to have his dad tell him he’s proud of him will always be in there somewhere. The kid who’s scared of the basement with the lights off. The kid who just wants to play GoldenEye with his brother. He never went anywhere. He’s still in there and comes out when my kids need him.

I remember when I just couldn’t play with toys anymore. Making a story about Barbie & Co. suddenly just didn’t happen anymore.

Also, some radio said they were putting on a “classic” and it was “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce.

For me it was after my baby penis fell off and my adult one finished growing in.

Work, home, marriage, children. Having a real sense of responsibility.

When, given a choice between doing something fun and something necessary that can be easily put off, you default to doing the necessary.