Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 535 Easy(ish) Steps

This is like an irreverent, modern version of Peggy Post's book on Etiquette but covers so much more than that - from how to write thank-you notes, to dealing with difficult neighbors, to more practical things like how to get stains out of your clothes (!) and basic groceries you should have in your house. It reads like a funny but wise pep talk from the home-economics teacher that you never had (because of all the budget cuts during your millennial high school years) - inspiring and entertaining at the same time. Yes, a lot of the book is either common sense (how to behave in a car accident) or google-able things (how to get stains out of clothes, how to fill in nail holes in the wall) but honestly, we all have our "knowledge gaps" and I definitely learned a few new things from this book. If you grew up in a loving but perpetually frazzled household, some of the concepts about cleaning may be new to you (or me). Most of it was a gentle prod regarding things I know but need to work on (and I'm a young, married, employed professional) such as how to stay organized and how to approach investing. The drawings are so relatable and definitely hit the nail on the head. I would definitely recommend this book to other twenty-somethings.

Why couldn't this book have been around when I was establishing my young life, away for my parents for the first time.? So with that in mind, I bought this book for my twenty-year-old son for Christmas. The book had great Amazon reviews, but I wanted to see for myself what the hoopla was about so I dipped into the book and scanned a couple of pages. Next thing I knew, I'm reading the entire thing and my son hasn't seen it since Christmas! The author has a friendly, respectful tone and she goes into granular detail on everything: why tidy a home after a party? Why bother sweeping? How to deal with car insurance. When and how to clean out your washing machine (this was totally new to me). The author writes in a very familiar, hey-we're-all-in-this-together kind of way. Very readable, very worth it.

I enjoy the Adulting blog when I get a chance to read it, so I thought the book would be a fun, easy read. It was. I think it's written in a way most kids (and yes, I call twenty-somethings "kids," which is the first sign that I'm way older) will find accessible, yet it doesn't cross over into that "hey, you're trying too hard to sound like me" vibe. There's solid advice here, without being preachy. I found a few new things for this old dog, too, such as Step 8: Remember your circle of concern versus your circle of action. It's sort of like an updated version of the Serenity Prayer. Not every piece of advice is one that I would follow, though. It may be tempting to call a co-worker the c-word, but I wouldn't recommend it. I think you can handle conflict without calling people names. Some favorite moments: •We all sense our own dysfunction so clearly. And because we can't do that one thing - whether it be keeping a clean house, not feeling shy and awkward at work, or having a credit score of 750 - we assign it a higher priority on our own personal Things That You Must Be Good At If You Wish to Be a Functional Adult list. We don't remember the fourteen things we do reasonably well; we remember our one arena of miserable failure. •Intentions are nice, but ultimately intentions don't really matter because they only exist inside you. •A big part of being a well-adjusted person is accepting that you can't be good at everything. Some things will always be hard. Decide what you can do in those arenas. •You're a grown-up, and you get to decide what behaviors affect you for five minutes versus what behaviors change you as a person. •As my friend Kate put it, if you don't like someone and they don't like you, that's not a problem, that's mutual agreement. •You know why movies are so satisfying? Because they reflect back a reality that we all wish were true, that being good is its own reward and that being right means we will win. • The value of the relationship is not in the uninterrupted continuity of same-level friendship, but in the fact that you can be friends at twelve, twenty, twenty-five. So don't freak out if you're not close friends for six months when you're twenty-three. You won't ever make any new old friends. Don't get mad at them, or yourself, if it's not exactly the same as it used to be. A lot of times you'll find that after a few years, you'll feel closer again. •Being in a real, grown-up relationship means deciding every day to love another person, even though sometimes they will annoy the everlasting s*** out of you. Everything needs maintenance. Loving someone is not a onetime thing, something earned once then secured forever. It's more like a human six-year-old, something delightful but also in need of vigilance and attention, lest it fall out of a tree and break its wrist. •People can and do change. When they want to. •We all want "closure." But that doesn't make closure any more of a real thing than, say, a kind and gentle Pegasus who is eager to read your unpublished novel...In real life, closure comes from months or years of perspective, reflection, and insight. Or it doesn't - some things close, some don't. Definitely recommended for the younger set, but older set will likely enjoy as well.

I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my 20 year old daughter, but before giving it to her, I wanted to take a look through it and see just what the advice was like. I ended up reading the entire thing. First of all, Kelly Williams Brown strikes all the right humorous notes. I laughed out loud several times and nodded in commiseration several more as her experiences mirrored my own. But was the advice worth it? I think so. Sure, you might be too far along the pike to benefit from some of it. Some of it is complete common sense (i.e. buy toilet paper in bulk -- the use/age graph on this is priceless!). But it never hurts to read it or hear it aloud at least one time. And some of the things she covered are issues I still have trouble with and I'm easily old enough to be the author's mom. I will indeed give this book to my daughter and hope she actually finds time to read it and absorb some of the great stuff although I hope she doesn't drink as much or have as much unmarried sex as the book allows. But if she does decide to start drinking and screwing around, the book offers some pretty good guidelines on how to do such in an adult fashion. Still I hope she spends more time on the chapter about financial responsibility. Great job, Kelly. Now if you can hurry up and turn 60, I need a book on Senioring.

Great book

Informative

useful tips and practical example. good.

Tanti pratici consigli su come sopravvivere dopo i 30 anni una volta usciti di casa. Divertente e consigliato! difficile interrompere la lettura, vi troverete a ridere come dei matti!

So perfectly described! I love the structure by which this book was writen. Every adult woman should have this as a guide! I absolutely loved it and laugh so much! This is truly adulting 101, it cannot get more specific than this. Perfect idea for a gift as well! 😂