May I please be considered for adulthood?

What do we have to do to be seen as an adults?? Finish high school? Hold down a full time job? Vote, pay taxes? Earn a college degree? Marry your sweetheart? Establish a home together? Have a child together? Somewhere along the way I assumed we would have earned some respect, the right to be acknowledged as our own family! What is the moral of this story?? Never assume.