People Share The Most Childish Behavior They’ve Ever Seen From Adults

September 7, 2023 | Scott Mazza

People Share The Most Childish Behavior They’ve Ever Seen From Adults


Adulthood is the part of our lives where we’ve outgrown the silly and juvenile immaturity of our childhood, right? Well, apparently not for everyone…It seems that some adults are nothing more than big children—and they act like it too! Don’t believe me? Here are 42 ridiculous cases of adults engaging in childish behavior.


1. Who Cut the Cheese?

A man in his forties at my retail store ran over to another aisle, passed gas really loudly, then ran back over and laughed about it with his buddies.

adult temper tantrums

2. Straw Man

I used to wait tables. One day, I got a pair of 30-something-year-old businessmen. When I brought them their drinks, I asked if they wanted straws. They initially said no, but then one of the men changed his mind. He asked me, in a small but oh-so-hopeful voice, "Unless...do you have bendy straws?" I felt so bad telling him we just had the boring straight kind. I've never seen a face fall so fast.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

3. Dereliction of Duty

I saw a group of off-duty state troopers peeing in a bush at a tailgate. The city authorities were coming up to the side of them, so one of them yelled "cops!" and they all ran away.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsFlickr, Jamelle Bouie

4. Building Blocks of Adulthood

My father, who is in his 60s, was playing with legos at a dentist's office while waiting for his appointment. He even used his teeth to try and remove one of the blocks. When he looked up and saw me watching him, he quickly stopped playing. I found out the next day from my mother that he had actually managed to swallow a lego. I just can't take him anywhere!

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

5. Telling It Like It Is

I saw a lady at Disneyland yelling at the person she was with. "You're acting like a baby!" she screamed. The person she was with was...a baby.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

6. Table Manners

My mother’s coworkers act like children towards people they don’t like. They always laugh and snicker behind your back as you pass by. One time, they all got up and moved when someone who wasn’t part of their clique sat down at their table. Then they laughed obnoxiously at the lonely person from their new table. These people are all in their 50s. How old do you gotta be to grow up?

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

7. Dynamic Duo

Two of my uncles constantly try and act like they are in the movie Step Brothers. They also call each other Sea Hawk and Johnny Quest. They are in their early 50s. They must have fun lives.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

8. Full of Sheets

My current boyfriend and I both come from very religious families. After months of dating, his parents contacted my parents to inform them that we have been sleeping together. How did they know? They hacked into his Facebook account and read his messages, that’s how! We are 19 and 21 years old, respectively. They did not take well to being told it was none of their business…

Yep, they're crazy Factsshutterstock

9. Lean on Me

The most childlike adult behavior I’ve seen in a while was watching my dad sit on the floor playing Mario Kart with my 5-year-old brother—and constantly leaning towards the direction he was turning.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPxHere

10. Splish Splash

I went to a local pizza restaurant with my dad. Behind my dad, I could see a young girl’s birthday party going on. The little girl was talking with her friends and the mother was tugging at her sleeve to get her attention. The girl was so into her conversation that she wasn't responding. The mother became frustrated, picked up the water pitcher, and dumped it out all over the table. Some people shouldn't have kids...

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

11. Moon Landing

I saw a guy at the store asking his mom for some money to buy the entire Sailor Moon series. He was in his 40s…

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

12. Shop Till You Drop

A couple that we are good friends with is constantly having money issues. They both work full-time jobs, and he also does odd jobs on the side for some extra cash. Lots of the odd jobs are things that she sets up. She often gets mad at him for working all the time and not spending enough time at home with her and the kids. To "get back at him" for this, she goes on a shopping spree—buying a bunch of junk they don't need. I am completely baffled at the lack of logic and overall immaturity in this situation.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

13. Getting Schooled

A girl in my college biology class didn't like the professor’s lecture style. She had her mom call the department head and complain. That was bad enough already, but then the next day she came back to class and you could just tell the professor was fuming. He made a general statement about how he'd received some feedback and he just wanted to make sure everyone understood that he welcomes emails or conferences about any concerns and that it isn't necessary to contact department heads unless there is a serious issue.

The girl got up and ran out of the room, leaving her stuff behind. I went to the bathroom a few minutes later and she was hiding in there, distraught and furiously texting someone. She asked me if I could go into the lecture hall and get her backpack for her. She said that she didn't want to see the professor because of how "mean" he was being.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

14. Higher Stupidity

You have no idea how many college students I see who choose to be in college, yet whine and complain all day about having to actually go to classes.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

15. Mother Knows Best

A woman in a bad mood kept slamming on her brakes in the middle of traffic, causing a bunch of delays and almost getting into several crashes. She had a young child in the back seat. Mother of the year!

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

16. Bird Is the Word

My family uses weird peacock calls to locate one another in populated places. I don’t know which feeling is more extreme for me when this happens—the immaturity or the embarrassment!

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

17. Musical Chairs

As an HR professional, I once had to mediate a dispute between four supposed adults arguing over who should get to sit next to whom during a desk shuffle in the office.

Employees should have been fired factsShutterstock

18. Taking Responsibility

My dad passed gas in public and blamed it on me. He’s 61 years old. I'm immune to embarrassment at this point…

Toxic Partners factsShutterstock

19. Cutting to the Chase

I went to a waterpark and watched an adult start yelling "SHE’S CUTTING THE LINE! SHE’S CUTTING!!!" when a little girl walked a bit ahead to be with her mom…

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

20. Center of Attention

When my grandpa passed on, my grandmother was obviously very sad. Her friend came over to see how she was doing after the funeral. My aunt actually got jealous and mad at her newly-widowed mother—because she was talking to her friend instead of to her. Since that day, my aunt and grandmother have not said a single word to each other. Safe to say I now believe my aunt is not very mature.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

21. Taking a Gamble

My mother, in her fifties, wanted to borrow my computer to flush some more money down the toilet with her online gambling addiction. I refused to let her use it. She started screaming and crying for her mother to come into my room and make me let her use my computer.

America’s Got Talent FactsShutterstock

22. Whack-a-Troll

I was on a flight with my mother. The woman behind us had two very small children, who decided that they’d rather stand on the floor punching people’s seats than sit down nicely. The seats they picked out for punching just happened to be our seats. After a little while of this going on, my mom turned around and politely asked the mother if she could stop them from doing it.

The lady flipped out. She yelled at my mom and demanded that she not tell her kids what they could and couldn't do—even though my mom had not said anything to her children. She didn't stop them, and even began to encourage them! My mom called the flight attendant over, who told the women that the kids weren’t allowed to be in the aisle anyway because of safety policies. She complied, but told her kids that the reason they could no longer play was because of “that mean woman in front of us who hates children".

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

23. Nothing to Hide?

I know a guy who bums smokes off me all the time, because his wife “thinks” he quit. Meanwhile, he does it at BBQs and stuff when she is around and thinks she's too stupid to realize. He'll light up behind her back and then deny it when she calls him out. Seriously reminds me of a kid trying to hide stuff from his parents.

Bad Guests FactsShutterstock

24. Scouting for Better Customers

Back when I was a Girl Scout, my troop was selling cookies in front of Walmart. A man came by and asked how much they were. We told him the price was $3.50. He proceeded to curse us out (a bunch of 8-13-year-olds) for the cookies being expensive, even though we had no control over setting the prices…

Childish Behavior From Adults factsFlickr, Bureau of Reclamation

25. Old Habits Die Hard

I've seen an 84-year-old pass gas into a sleeping 67-year-old's face. Apparently their feud had been going on back and forth for almost 50 years.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

26. Stranglehold

As a social worker, I once had a client who, in great detail, tried to explain to me that he was fully justified in strangling his wife, because she had annoyed him.

Logical People Share How Stupid Rules Have BackfiredShutterstock

27. Pick on Someone Your Own Size

My roommate and I were purchasing some gummy bears at a candy store. Some nearby kids saw us and started complaining to their mother that they wanted candy—but to no avail. Hearing this, my roommate and I began to make a spectacle for them, stuffing entire fistfuls of gummy bears into our mouths, face-full mumbling to each other about how awesome it is to be an adult. I swear those poor children were salivating.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

28. Order in the Court

I’m a lawyer. One time, a client made a huge scene and stormed out of the courthouse just minutes before his case would have been resolved—because he didn't like the auto shop where his soon-to-be-ex-wife was planning to take their son's car for an oil change later that afternoon.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

29. Disturbance in the Kitchen

My 23-year-old brother was complaining like a child because he didn't like the food my mom had made for dinner one night. He was still living at home, which I guess caused his transition into adulthood to be delayed a little bit.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

30. Pwetty Pwetty Pwease?

There are two women at my work who talk like babies all the time. I won't respond to them if they ask me something in their baby voices. They remind me of the twins from Alice in Wonderland.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

31. The Game of Life

My hypocrite friend yelled at her children for pouting and whining about unimportant things. She then pouted and whined in front of them when things went badly for her in a board game we were all playing...

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

32. A Cheesy Story

The most immature behavior I’ve ever witnessed from an adult was someone weeping like a wild animal because their pizza slice fell on the floor. That someone was me…

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

33. Laughing At Your Own Jokes

At Walmart one day, I tooted all over the Capri Sun boxes and began to laugh wildly. I'm 26.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPxHere

34. Spaced Out

One I've seen is people physically fighting over a parking space, when there are plenty of other equally good spaces available.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

35. Adding Fuel to the Fire

I used to work in a gas station. One day, this lady came in and started crying and throwing candy because I wouldn't let her use our business phone. There was a payphone right outside and we had a strict policy about who could access our business phone. She ran and hid in the bathroom, at which point I called the authorities.

Awkward Moments With Complete Strangers factsShutterstock

36. A Great Debate

I once overheard an argument between a grown lady and her 6-year-old daughter. It consisted of the following:

Child: Shut up!

Adult: No, you shut up!

Child: You shut up!!

Adult: No, you freaking shut up!!

Isn’t raising the next generation a beautiful sight to behold?

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

37. Selectively Deaf

Both of my parents are very immature in general, but this particular incident caught me totally off guard. When I was 13, I won an argument with my mom. It was something to do with Earth Hour, and how we should try our best not to use any electronic devices during that time. To my surprise, when I started winning the debate, my mom literally put her fingers in her ears and started screaming "I CAN'T HEAR YOU, NANANANANA!" I learned a lot about human nature that day…

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

38. Being the Smaller Person

When I was about six years old, my stepmother had said something that humiliated me. We got into an argument and I yelled that I hated her. She responded, "I hate you, too!" and I was pretty much just stunned. I think she was in her mid-30s then, and that moment stuck with me for a long time…

Childish Behavior From Adults factsShutterstock

39. Be Thankful You Don’t Work For This Guy

After a mistake was made on a product at my work, the assembly team was left to try and get the project out on time. The deadline was around Dec 1st. The boss demanded that everyone work on Thanksgiving. Someone said, "We want to spend time with our families". We were told, "I don’t care, I hate your families!!!"

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

40. Getting Peppered

I had a man in his 40s call a 16-year-old girl I work with a stupid idiot because she forgot to put extra peppers on his sandwich. I was in an irritable mood that day, so I confronted him about it. I asked him if he had any children, he said yes. I asked him if he thought it would be appropriate for them to talk to a stranger (let alone a young girl) like that. He said no, so I asked him, "What makes you so special then?" He looked very ashamed of himself and just walked out of the store without saying a word. I got some applause from one of the tables.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

41. That Explains a Lot

After I came into work on a Saturday to help with some orders that were behind, the boss came in the back and started SCREAMING at me about why things were a certain way. I tried to explain that I just got there, that I had nothing to do with the job until now, and that I was just trying to fix it. More screaming. I said, "Phil, be reasonable!" He responded by jumping up and down and screaming "I don't WANT to be reasonable!!"

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPixabay

42. Art of the Deal

I used to be a divorce lawyer. My entire job consisted of dealing with people constantly outdoing each other for the title of "Most Immature Thing You've Ever Seen an Adult Do". Best of all was the guy who, when he felt he was not getting his way, offered to completely abandon his children and agree to never see them again, in exchange for not having to pay any support money.

Childish Behavior From Adults factsPxHere

Sources: ,


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