If I were a young woman now...

Probably I would battle on with A levels and go to university instead of leaving after a term, followed by several false starts work wise. Also I would have been better at keeping in touch with friends.

I wouldn't have got married so young (well, I was not as young as some), would have carried on with my education and travelled more when I was still young and fit.

I would probably not go into nursing. The training now is all academic and university courses, ending with a degree. I don't think I would enjoy that as much as ward based learning. Love, compassion and caring cannot be taught in a classroom, and it seems to me that this is what is lacking in today's hospitals. I would also have had my children earlier. I love being a Granny and wish I was a little younger and fitter!

I'd challenge - well, everything. I'd know that 'good enough' is good enough and take some pressure off me and those I love.

Another one here who wouldn't have got married so young (21) and would have stood up to my mother. She influenced me so much, but perhaps I am one of those who always has to blame someone else instead of being responsible for my own mistakes. I would have chosen my friends better if that were possible.

Unfortunately the link doesn't work - think the original poster on Facebook must have taken it down. Shame, it was quite thought provoking!

www.facebook.com/mbmag/videos/vb.48486833963/10153372361093964/?type=2&theater

This might work I think, it's from the original Mother & Baby magazine FB page

Well, having now watched that video, I can't help feeling that life's too short to spend it wallowing in regrets!
What's done is done.

In today's world I probably wouldn't go into teaching. I think I would be inclined to take a law degree combined with languages. I'd still enjoy being free in my 20s and have no regrets about being a later mum.

I didn't see the video as being about having regrets, janea, more about a lesson to all young women out there.
I certainly have no regrets, though I am aware that I would do things differently if I were a young woman in today's world.

it depends... you mean knowing what we know now I suppose? We would all probably do things slightly differently, but who is to say they would have a better outcome?

I'm another one who married far too young (19). And I wish I'd gone to art college straight from school and not into the Midland Bank . It took me until my early 30s to get the qualifications I needed for the job I really wanted to do.

hildajenniJI agree with you about nursing today.I would not have been one either.
I would have used my love of sewing for a career in the fashion industry, but too late now!
I look at my four granddaughters and realise that their lives are different from mine at that age, young women seem to have a lot more freedom now.My oldest DGD is 23 and has travelled the world, something I never considered doing.

I wish I'd done law at University rather than a language then PGCE. I made a mediocre teacher and took ages finding my feet career-wise.

I wish I'd had more confidence and not spent so much time obsessing over my looks. I still do, and find ageing really hard.

I wish I hadn't felt under so much pressure to settle down with a man.

I'm so, so glad, though, that we didn't have social media then. I don't know how I would have coped with all the attention-seeking and bragging and having to be "out there".

I wish I'd followed my own instincts and refused to marry the father of my first child. The marriage didn't last 5 minutes and became a single parent anyway.

I wish I could have stayed in education in order to become a social worker as I had always wanted to do but there was a need to get a job that earned money in order to keep my baby. -- should have thought of that when you got yourself pregnant though, shouldn't you--

You make a very good point about social media today, gettingon. That is one of the major differences in life today as compared to when we were all young - and why, if I were a young woman now, it might not be easy to live my life in quite the same way as I did then. As I said upthread, it is not about having regrets about what we did and didn't do, but about how we would live in today's world.
I do wonder, for example, if I would get married as young now - not only because I might choose differently, but because the expectation that a serious relationship almost automatically leads to marriage is no longer the case today. So I might well be in and out of relationships today, not settling down till my mid thirties. My entire life path would be different as a result.

Hear, hear! janea. I think it was from you that I learned this: The only reason for looking back is to see how far you've come.

If I were a young woman now... who knows, who knows? I'd still be me.

Quite right thatbags and janea it is no good wondering what if, life is here to be lived now, and if we were young again, we might well make different mistakes, because we still had so much to learn.

I have no idea what I'd do jobwise if I were a young woman now, but I would certainly be more careful who I married!

NotTooOld I worked at Midland Bank too when I left school!

I traveled quite a bit in my twenties but didn't get beyond Europe til I was 30 - spent my 30th birthday on an overnight bus across Thailand. So I would explore further afield a little earlier including Africa, China, South America and more of SE Asia. I would still have my DC fairly late, had two DC in mid thirties. But I'd try to be more confident that this was going to happen and enjoy my twenties knowing I had all this other family life to come - and knowing to make the most of my freedom!

I wouldn't have slavishly listened to my parents. I was completely in thrall to them and did exactly what I was told!

I would have gone into teaching and been a fabulous teacher of veyr small children.

I would have been kinder and less arrogant, I would have had millions, zillions, more children. From the time I can remember, I wanted at least 8 children.

BTWDH worked his years out at Midland Bank - he got a jolly good pension!

If I was a young woman now, I hope that I'd do exactly what I did, marry at 22, have two great sons, and when they're in their teens (and if I got divorced as I did), get back on my feet and get a satisfying career - or maybe I've just been lucky. If I have been, I'm grateful.

I would say it's always darkest before dawn - things will work out for the best.

I thought the women were a bit washy washy and droopy. I only could wish that I'd known then what I know now and that's not possible. Isn't the saying "if youth knew and age could"?