6 Ways You Revert To Childhood When You Go Home

When you finally move out of your parents' home, it marks your adulthood and independence. You're a real person in the world who pays bills and is responsible for their own meals now, rejoice! I moved out of my mum's house and all the way to London when I was 22, and I couldn't even boil rice without burning it, so it was incredibly daunting to have to be this self sufficient person. But as it turns out, it came naturally, and I am actually incredibly good at life. Eight years later I make the best steamed rice anyone has ever had. I'm basically a rice genius.

It's easy to start thinking things like "I got this" when you're doing awesome things like making perfect rice in your own home, that you pay to live in yourself. But all that lovely sense of independence and achievement goes out the window the second you visit home. For me, going home is always an event (flying from New York to Australia), and the second I step across the thresh hold it's like I go from 30 to 13. When I'm in my mum's house I'm instantly reverted to my childhood state: dependent, needy, and definitely very greedy for attention. And I bet for those who don't get home all that often, the exact same things happen. Here are six ways you become a child again when you visit home:

1. Standing in the open fridge door eating everything

Time at mum's house means a lot of time spent in an open fridge door, eating cold cuts straight out of the cold cut tray, and being told off for hanging off the fridge door.

2. Acting like you're dying when you're sick

Generally when I get sick, even if it's very, very sick, I suck it up and get on with my business without complaining too much. If I'm at my mum's house and get even a little bit of a scratchy throat, however, the world literally begins ending.

3. Cuddling with mum

When was the last time you curled up in a ball on mum's lap, or at her feet while she sat on the couch and you watched a movie? When was the last time you got into bed with mum in the morning, kicking dad out? You probably hadn't even hit puberty, right? And then when you did, you wouldn't let her touch you for years? Now that you're an adult going home, you're basically a giant baby who just wants to be held. Pray that no one Instagrams this.

4. Petty bickering with siblings

Picture this: three full grown adult humans arguing about who has to sit in the middle in the backseat of the car. Paints a pretty picture, doesn't it?

5. Your filter immediately switches off

One of the weirdest things that happens is that you become your whole self. There are no airs and graces, there's no trying to impress. If you're feeling crabby, you act crabby. If you're feeling on top of the world you jump around and up and down and scream and wave your arms like a lunatic. Probably the greatest thing about reverting to your child state is that you can just be you around your family at all times with no apologies. You can lay everything about yourself out on the table and know that you'll still be loved.

6. Allowing your parents to make decisions for you

What are you having for dinner? What are your plans for the day? What shoes would be appropriate to wear right now? Defer all responsibility to parents. Literally make zero actual decisions yourself, because as an adult you're making decisions all the time. Now you're with the only adults who have seniority to you, you might as well let them take the reigns for a while.

Images: Kat George/Instagram; Giphy (6)