27 Adulthood Memes for Adults Still in Touch With Their Inner Child

Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor

Aug 15, 2026 5:00 PM EDT

Who was going to tell us that being an adult means having to fake your way through every step of life?

We are convinced that most people don't actually feel like they have the right qualifications to walk around the world and make important decisions that may or may not affect other people.

It truly feels like one day we were children playing mermaids at the local pool, then the next day we were figuring out how to pay our taxes and pay rent. Somehow, we also got ourselves a job that helps us pay the bills, and a mountain of responsibilities we are not really sure how to handle. All the while, we just want to drop everything and go play mermaids again before summer ends.

Some elements of adulthood are actually fun; we're not going to lie. We enjoy having our own money, and the independence to do whatever it is we want with it. We like having our own home, and the opportunity to travel the world, or even the freedom to adopt a pet that will become a part of our family. Some responsibility is worth the time and effort. But with all that joy, we still feel like we're just kids in disguise, making up solutions to big problems, and calling up our parents every time we have no idea how to fix something that feels way over our heads.

We don't feel like actual adults, but since we are, we need to find ways to deal with it, but a way that won't make us lose that inner child either, because without it, we feel like we would lose a big chunk of ourselves. That is why we love to turn to memes to help us deal with the trouble of adulthood. There's nothing a little bit of humor and self-deprecation can't fix.