Changing a diaper was something that I thought I wouldn’t have to do until I have a baby of my own.
Last Monday, my Perth sister had to go to the dentist to get some work done.
I was in the city that weekend, and was asked to extend my stay to babysit my little 20-month-old niece for the morning.
So there I was, at 26 years of age, changing a baby’s nappy for the very first time.
Luckily, it was only a “number one”.
I managed to put a new one on her as she gave me that: “you’ve never done this before, have you?” kind of look.
I was delighted that I managed to do what, in hindsight, was a simple task.
Fortunately, she was well-behaved for the rest of the morning before I put her down for a nap.
I informed my mother back in Malaysia a couple of days later – she is always proud of me when I learn something new.
"Did you manage to put on the diaper straight or was it lop-sided?,” she wrote back, showing great faith in her son.
Perhaps she pictured Zach Galifianakis’ character (Alan) in the movie The Hangover, when he found baby Carlos and everyone doubted his ability to mind the youngster.
“It's not as easy as it looks. You used to try to crawl away while having a new diaper put on. I had to give you a toy or something to play with to keep you on your back for a few seconds,” Mum added.
“This was only a small taste of child care for you. When you start having your own kids, you'll know what it really is like from day one, every day, 24/7.”
My mum was a single mother of two who worked shifts as a nurse.
My other sister – who lives in London – helped out and adopted the role of second mum to me when she was only 11.
She deserves a medal and lots of drinks on me for what she did at such a young age.
To this day, Mum still tells the story about my sister’s high school best friend running away in horror as she witnessed what baby Matt had produced.
It got me thinking about the different stages of adulthood.
I completed a BuzzFeed online test called: “What per cent adult are you?”.
I got 61 per cent adult, which I’m pretty content with.
“You're actually a pretty decent adult! You're good at most household tasks and are definitely totally competent at looking after yourself, even if sometimes you feel like a kid who's kind of faking their way through adulthood. You can be trusted with most tasks and probably have a pretty settled lifestyle, but that doesn't mean you don't still have quite a few traits from your teenage years,” the test assessed.
There are certain “achievements” that people hope to attain as they progress from adolescence to adulthood, such as: puberty, gaining your driver licence, moving out of home, graduating, landing your first “real job”, buying your first home, getting married and perhaps having children.
Those things certainly grow you up, but do they make you a grown up?
Research psychologist Jeffrey Jensen Arnett coined the term "emerging adulthood" from his study on 18 to 29-year-olds – which refers to that tumultuous period through the 20s where you're not quite independent, but most of the way there.
People often say to me: “it’s okay, you’re still young”.
It’s fair to say that my ducks are not in a row, they are still wandering; as they should be at my age.
– Matthew Lau