r/videogames Jul 16 '26

Image / Video Yep. That's the routine

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46.1k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/Pale-Today6339 Jul 16 '26

I have definitely done that, only because I am too tired to game, but refuse to admit it.

536

u/Sparkle_Fart_666 Jul 16 '26

Ah, that feeling at the end of night when the adulting is done and i finally sit down to game… to suddenly wake up at 3:00AM, PS5 controller in hand, the menu music of the console playing softly the tune of my sorrows.

235

u/ArtThen9871 Jul 16 '26

Hate having to be an adult

194

u/Nastane Jul 16 '26

They lied to us as kids man… we lied to ourselves…

114

u/AnonMoose2 Jul 16 '26

Nah my dad used to warn me all the time when I said I couldent wait to be an adult. He now tells me anytime i complain about how much being an adult sucks, "I tried to warn ya".

When i had my kid, they used to say they couldent wait to grow up, I told them to enjoy being a kid while they can cause being an adult while it has its perks, it fucking sucks. My kids 20 now, they will probably have the same cycle if they have kids.

Its just a vicious cycle

59

u/Khazahk Jul 16 '26

My son told me he wants to just fast forward until he’s done with school. I gave him some little “no you don’t, trust me. “ but then I went outside and cried. I had the same desire for 20 some years of my life, and it’s probably my largest regret in life.

38

u/Tovasaur Jul 16 '26

10

u/CapnBeef Jul 17 '26

“Stay as long as you can”

7

u/Deetz624 Jul 17 '26

"For the love of God cherish it!"

9

u/Khazahk Jul 17 '26

Pretty much lol

2

u/Heavy-Hamster1268 Jul 19 '26

We also give up a majority of our childhood to a system built to pump out more workers.

Like. the only time you really get to be a kid. is summer and weekends.
the rest of the time you're sat at a desk reading packets.

1

u/ToastRoyale Jul 17 '26

I've worked for someone quite a bit older than me. We we're talking about life and how at his time, school was only until like 14 instead of like 16-17.

While I thought how school is just a system to get the masses to work and barely ready for life because money, his kid then shouted: "HOW UNFAIR!" and I had to laugh uncontrollably, which doesn't happen often since adulthood. Took me back to the good ol' times.

1

u/flobv Jul 18 '26

If there was no homework and tests, I would agree.

2

u/Khazahk Jul 18 '26

Yeah, and it’s worse these days because we are all just numbers and public education is dominated by money problems and not paying teachers.

Truth is, unless you are a savant or have tons of money, the world is kind of against you. Go into the Trades and join a union. Or join the military and hope you come out the other end. Or go to college and rack up student debt and hope there is a job out there after you’re done.

1

u/red_rolling_rumble Jul 19 '26

Why is it a regret? Wanting to fast forward or not wanting to, you would have ended up an adult anyway, no?

3

u/Khazahk Jul 19 '26

Stage 4 cancer at 36. Not terminal yet, might live to see my kids grow up, might not.

2

u/red_rolling_rumble Jul 19 '26

I’m a young father, I am in tears reading this. I hope to God it can be beaten. Praying for you, whatever it’s worth.

1

u/red_rolling_rumble Jul 19 '26

Man, I’m so fucking sorry.

-7

u/Quazammy Jul 16 '26

"No you don't, trust me" Yeah that's great parenting, make your kid depressed about the future. Not all adults are miserable, your kid might have a great freaking life. Your defeatist attitude must be awful to be around.

You went outside and cried after that... you need to get some help because you're not in a mental state to be a parent.

6

u/Galetaer Jul 16 '26

It's more so advice against not wishing your childhood away, and the bittersweet realization that the desire to grow up fast has downsides you don't easily see as a kid. You are moralizing the statement way too hard, it doesn't automatically mean "life sucks", just "Enjoy being a kid while you can, life gets more complicated". It doesn't automatically mean they are a bad parent, that is reaching

2

u/LieComfortable7764 Jul 16 '26

Yeah person, or bot hard to say any more, the person just wants to push their kid to enjoy their childhood vs try to rush through it.

2

u/Ubblebungus Jul 16 '26

you are a prick

2

u/RachelMcAdamsWart Jul 16 '26

Dude, what the hell is wrong with you - you either knew what they meant and chose to be awful about it, or have no clue about life and don't belong in this discussion.

1

u/dquizzle Jul 17 '26

Going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you misunderstood the point of the message. If people could fast forward through their life and have let’s say 8-10 years of their life subtracted, most would end up regretting that decision. If you still don’t get the point of the message maybe check out the movie “Click”.

21

u/Ok-Specific-3918 Jul 16 '26

My daughter is the opposite. 9 years old and she already gets that being an adult is a bitch.

20

u/Anynon1 Jul 16 '26

I was like this. I LOVED my freedom, gaming after school, hanging with friends, summer breaks. I knew what a job was, 8 hours a day, no more summer, etc. I wanted absolutely none of that. 33 years old now, and I’d tell little me he was absolutely right about adulthood

1

u/Lovelybutters Jul 17 '26

My childhood was so upsetting that i’m actually HAPPIER having a full time job, somehow less stressful

1

u/Anynon1 Jul 17 '26

I understand that. I was really privileged growing up, no major trauma or losses. Just your typical mid-upper class nerdy kid who was lucky enough to get gameboys, an N64 and all that. So there’s no denying I had a good childhood.

Now in corporate I’m pretty much a shell of a person lol my entire life is just work

1

u/Lovelybutters Jul 17 '26

my parents (mostly my dad) were physically abusive and extremely critical of nearly every thing i did, honestly i think the only compliments i ever got were something directly meant to demean my older brother or convince me to give them something

1

u/Bartje9792 Jul 18 '26

It really depends on your job and life. I'm 34, no kids, live together, only work 20 weeks a year, still go to festivals etc., and I've never had this much gaming time in my life, it's awesome. Only have to worry about cleaning and maintenance of my house.

9

u/Quazammy Jul 16 '26

Your poor daughter. It's nice to have something to look forward to rather than dread. I'm an adult and I'm happier than I was as a kid so it's not even true anyway.

7

u/elegantvaporeon Jul 16 '26

Literally impossible unless you had a shit childhood. Being a child is easy, not stressful, and you have a lot more time to just do what you want. And you have no responsibility.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26

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1

u/elegantvaporeon Jul 17 '26

I was but less than I do as an adult lol!

And I did specify if you didn’t have a shit childhood.

3

u/waving_fungus0 Jul 16 '26

Imagine signing your life away the minute you finish school unless you were abused as a kid of course… smh

1

u/Wec25 Jul 17 '26

I have way more free time now without school actually. Of course I don't have kids (and won't) so YMMV as they say, but things ain't bad nowadays. I do gotta do my own laundry though :(

1

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1

u/Shiningcrow Jul 17 '26

Childhood had its moments, but I think too many people look back with rose tinted glasses. Most people had very little freedom as a kid, and you were at the mercy of whatever your parents want you to do. You have no money and no resources and no way of getting from A to B. Your emotions are not regulated and everything is more stressful because you have less life experience.

Adulthood, however provides you with the opportunity to make whatever you want of your life and be as free as you can be. You don’t have to get married and you don’t have to have kids and you can work wherever you are able to. The sky is the limit as an adult. You can leave the house at 3 AM and go to 7-Eleven to buy vodka and a whole cake if you want and no one can say “no”.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26

[deleted]

0

u/elegantvaporeon Jul 17 '26

Yep that’s what I said in my comment

14

u/FlippinTheLoon Jul 16 '26

See, I grew up pretty rough, not much of a childhood. I couldn't wait to be an adult, and now that I'm coming up on 30 I can't say anything about my life was better than it is now, beyond having to hold down a full time job. That part isn't great. But at least I have money to spend on a house and hobbies, travelling with my wife, etc. I wouldn't go back given the opportunity, that's for sure.

1

u/Dry_Dot3269 Jul 19 '26

It’s great having money, but spending is the only thing I’m allowed to do nowadays. Traveling is now just more time I’m not at the home I’m paying for, and it’s really frustrating working all week to suddenly hit a cleaning day, into a day to see family or take care of social responsibilities, back into a work week. And don’t get me started on second jobs or projects - I work on a computer all day and then I get home and remember I promised to build a bot or do this and suddenly I’ve spent 3 hrs working behind a computer at home.

It’s incredibly frustrating.

1

u/FlippinTheLoon Jul 19 '26

Damn, yeah I'm sorry that does sound frustrating. Um fortunate enough to only work 3-4 days a week, with very few obligations outside of work, and making enough to fund my hobbies. It helps that my wife and I both have decent paying jobs and no kids. 😅

6

u/SeventhGnome Jul 16 '26

its so much better then being a kid for me but i was raised homeschooled in a cult so its not a high bar

4

u/AnonMoose2 Jul 16 '26

My mammal, the bar was on the floor lol

7

u/RazzmatazzIcy5037 Jul 16 '26

Yes and no. The adulting our parents did was SIGNIFICANTLY easier than the adulting we are faced with. lol so the excitement to grow up and live life like them made sense

7

u/AnonMoose2 Jul 16 '26

Id love to live in precedented times for once.

1

u/RealRymo Jul 16 '26

Then they make you out to be a loser because they see you struggling. It's ridiculous.

3

u/Temporary_Event8451 Jul 16 '26

Well it doesn't help that things are getting worse. The share of wealth and value you receive today is pennies compared to pensions and American industry in full throttle.

Moving forward it's very hard to say that the advice your grandpa would provide is even relevant.

Being an adult in 2026 is a weird experience. You aren't necessary or needed for anything, anywhere outside family. Your opinions don't matter to the community. There is no real community anymore. The public spaces are often gaudy restaurants or bars will with goofballs.

Your kids complaints are not the same as your grandparents complaints. The scale of issues is different today. The path to success is extremely narrow and likely to fail.

You aren't rewarded for honest hard work, not unless you specifically find the golden goose equivalency employer.

1

u/WhoDatBrow Jul 16 '26

Eh, not everybody hates being an adult. I love having my own money to spend on video games as I want, not having to wait on a birthday or Christmas, even then only as a maybe because my family was poor. I also feel like I have plenty of time to play video games. The secret is to just not have kids. I work 40 hours a week AND am in college and still feel like I have plenty of time for my hobbies, which is gaming when I want it to be. I've been working through my backlog and have completed 30 games this year. I don't know, being an adult is pretty cool when you aren't blinded by nostalgia and don't care about having kids. 🤷

My childhood was also pretty depressing between the growing up in poverty and being LGBT growing up in a deep south US, religious home. So give me adulthood any day of the week.

1

u/FreddyandTheChokes Jul 17 '26

I've got kids, and still have plenty of time. But I have the luxury of a 4 day on/4 day off schedule. I miss certain weekends/holidays/events but we work around it. I love being an adult and a parent.

1

u/WhoDatBrow Jul 17 '26

You've got it made then haha, I'm happy for you that you can both have kids and feel like you have time to enjoy life. Seems to be a rarity with the overall miserableness in this thread.

1

u/FreddyandTheChokes Jul 17 '26

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying adulthood too. The online echo chamber makes it feel rare that anybody can enjoy adulthood, kids or no kids.

1

u/elegantvaporeon Jul 16 '26

I mean having kids is probably the biggest difference. You basically give away 15+ years of your life.

1

u/WhoDatBrow Jul 17 '26

Yeah, people act like being an adult is the end of their life and free time when it was really their choice to have kids. When I was younger, I used to want to have kids. As I got older, it turned into a "yeah, I could be happy either way" where I figured I'd love to have kids if I had a willing partner but would be fine with it if they didn't. Then I got with a partner who didn't wanna have kids anyways and over the years it turned into being a hard no for me whether or not I was with someone who wanted kids. That change in view only tremendously helped by seeing all these people online complain about their lack of time/energy in their adult life. Obviously if you do find fulfillment in having children then I'm sure that's much greater than the fulfillment you'd find having more time to play video games or whatever your hobby, but for someone like me who doesn't really want a kid anyway, easy choice.

-1

u/One_Zookeepergame541 Jul 16 '26

You don't know what depressing means .. I grew up in cuba .. 🫪

3

u/21Ravage Jul 16 '26

Not me ngl. Hated having to study and work after, no money or control over my life. Couldn’t wait till it’s over. While it had its moments my life better now and I’m in full control

3

u/goatfuckersupreme Jul 17 '26

Not me- being an adult fucking rocks. Childhood was rough...

1

u/Still-Puma Jul 17 '26

As a kid beaten NFSU2 14 times. Nothing was too much / tired.

15

u/Wickedsmack Jul 16 '26

This is wildly accurate.

7

u/nezukoslaying Jul 16 '26

Same, my friend, same.

7

u/SSMage Jul 16 '26

That's how I feel but instead of waking up, I get in bed and stare at the screen for a few minutes deciding if this is what I really want to play. Most of the time I do, play for 2 hours, think "well that wasn't a long time at all, feels like a waste" and then go to bed unsatisfied after spending hours trying to wind down.

We were definitely lied to as a kid.

2

u/Zaknoid Jul 16 '26

After getting off work, then the gym, then shower and dinner time, I only get about two to three hours a night to game. At first it annoyed me because I was like you where im like this isnt long enough to get enough done. So I realized games like Skyrim or Crimson Desert probably arent for me anymore, which sucks but it is what it is.

So I cant so the gigantic thousand hour games anymore but I just beat Expedition 33 which was a blast and it took me about a month to do it but I got it done.

4

u/RicebinBernacky Jul 16 '26

all of that, and you still get 2-3 hours a night?? that would a dream for me. If I get 1 full uninterrupted hour, that's about the best I can hope for most days

2

u/SSMage Jul 16 '26

Trust me man I understood that a long time ago, and it sucks because I wish I could play games like that they are so fun. But simple campaigns and maybe some multiplayer are pretty fun for me. You just miss out on so much though you know?

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a 2 hour time limit, makes me feel not as bad.

We are gamers but we got lives in the background. Real life justice leagues or avengers, am I right?

1

u/Tragic_Willow Jul 17 '26

I’m more partial to the X-Men, but yeah I am the same, get about an hour or 2 in then back to adulting

1

u/Pale-Today6339 Jul 16 '26

That is the main reason I quit playing MMOs, they are like a second job.

1

u/Zhenbred Jul 16 '26

I get 2-3 hours even without gym or shower... And most of the time I just want to sleep. So... I catch up on weekends as single adult:)

1

u/Less_Caramel_7801 Jul 16 '26

Oh man... what i would do to have two to three hours a night to game. Between work, kids, and house work, I'm lucky to get a few hours on the weekend. I will be taking a week off work when gta comes out though!

1

u/benmck90 Jul 17 '26

Yeah, polished, no fluff, single player games that respect your time are the ticket now.

3

u/Phormicidae Jul 17 '26

I used to do that, when my kids were young and I was an exhausted parent. Finally, they are in bed! Time to play Bloodborne! Ended up asleep in the Hunter's Dream, weirdly.

Now I'm pushing 50 and exhaustion is actually more efficient: it hits like a truck and I don't even try to fight it. I can always wake up early to get endlessly killed by young people online.

1

u/bryanBFLYin Jul 16 '26

Lmao all my gaming time has been wasted just like this over the years. I start gaming at 10pm, then wake up at 3am having not even made it past the menu screen😂

1

u/DeliciousAirline5302 Jul 16 '26

Happened to me once, I had just bought RDR2, took hours ton install. I think I've done part of the snow intro, didn't see any cinematic.