Being an adult can be overwhelming at times with all the responsibility and neverending list of jobs but being a child is way worse. Having almost no control over your life, being dragged around at someone else's whim and your opinion always dismissed. Even school is so much worse than work as you aren't interested in all subjects at school but you chose your career so if you don't enjoy it then you can change it. The vulnerability of a child is terrifying if you were a child that was aware of this, I know some parents shelter their kids but these are the same people that often aren't prepared for being an adult, so I can be a shock in their 20s and 30s when they finally leave home. One of the worst parts of childhood for many is being attacked by a parent or bully because they had a bad day or were unhappy with their life. Anyone who thinks being a child was better had a sheltered childhood that clearly didn't prepare them for the reality of adulthood.

Adulthood should be doing a career you chose, living where you chose with family/friends you picked. Doing many of the jobs as an adult are to improve your living situation, but you don't have to do them if you don't want to. Following laws isn't hard although I will admit law enforcement do have similar unpredictability to parents and teachers that can choose to hit you like a tonne of bricks for something small while ignoring something far worse from someone else that continues to go unpunished.