>At that point I decided there was no point worrying about it and, in
>fact, everyone is just making it up as they go along.

In a way, that does make me feel a bit better- not the implication that I'll likely feel in over my head for years to come, but hearing that even the "adult-y-er" adults have that problem. I think part of it is hailing from a region of the US that puts an even higher premium on "not talking about your problems" than average (Upper Midwest* in this case). Or maybe it's just my family being special; if you're familiar with the doctor's joke that old farmers never come in for medical checkups until "it hurts real bad", which means they have some imminently and gratuitously fatal condition? Well my Grandpa did one better: he didn't tell anyone or do anything about it until the brain cancer caused him to lapse into a coma. In any case, the adult-y-er adults in my life never willingly shared any tips, and asking them about things worked about as well as asking my cats. Maybe worse, even; the cats might at least act cute when you talk at them, which provides temporary distraction**.

In any case, I just want to say thank you once more for letting me vent.

*I'm pretty certain I live within a 4-hour radius of Hololive's Nerissa Ravencroft, which makes for some amusing reflections on regional culture, in that I wasn't aware of how often I say "ope" until she mentioned it in her debut. Now I can't stop being aware of it.

**My daughter and my 2nd cat have a rather interesting relationship: Every night, the cat goes in and sleeps on her bed. Every night, my daughter rolls over onto the cat, at which point the cat bites her. Neither one is willing is willing to make alterations to this arrangement.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."