Looking back:Is there anything you would have done differently?

Oh no I don't regret anything.
I also married young and never lived alone until now I'm widowed and my 4 DC have long since left so I am discovering what it's like and making the best of it.

I'm happy where I am in life now so I can't regret all the ups and downs that have brought me here, even if some of them weren't what I thought I wanted!

I would never have become a teacher,either. I would have chosen different subjects though at the time our school would not let you mix arts and sciences even though I desperately wanted to study biology and chemistry along with English lit which I loved. I ended up as a social worker managing a small organisation and was happy with that. I would have liked 6 kids but ended up with 4 though I fostered for a while as well.

It’s easy to think we should have had a different career, lived on our own, not with parents, seen more of the world before we married and had families….

Most of us are talking about 50-60 years ago, when times and the role of women were very different.

We didn’t have the same opportunities or outlook that our daughters and granddaughters have, changing times.

Calendargirl you are so right, times were different then, but I don't half envy my granddaughter's life as an undergraduate, away from home for the first time and enjoying every minute of it.

Not really. The only thing I would have liked was to have had a longer career in the Army. Things were just taking off for me when DH and I met - I turned down a senior promotion to marry him, knowing it would have meant me leaving the Army once I did and we loved each other so much. Married servicewomen didn’t work for the Army then. Things are different now. We had fifty six happy years together but I’ve often wondered “what if”.

Lovemylife

I’m another grammar school girl who really should not have gone into teaching. I was not suited to it at all.

At least your honest about it 😂

But lots of the teaching was a joy and my Facebook page has many of my ex pupils on it. I am able to follow their careers, and send congratulations when a baby is born to any of them.

Your post could have been written by me, fancyflowers, apart from me not being introverted. Journalism appealed but would not have worked well with family life in the way that teaching did. 🤔

Cossy

Yes, almost everything 🙄

I m with you there Cosey

BlueBelle

Cossy

Yes, almost everything 🙄

I m with you there Cosey

That’s very sad 😔

I regret my choices in men 😂The breakups have always cost me money ! I also regret leaving my grammar school at 16 as my stepfather thought I should start work and contribute. I would like to have gone to university. I did get a degree in later life but would like to have experienced student life .

I wouldn’t have got married at 18 and put my poor parents through hell.

I couldn’t change anything for fear of not having my daughter and son, and granddaughters. I have been beyond lucky in having them and would never risk not having them in my life.

Not passing my driving test. I took lessons In my twenties and thirties but failed the test twice. Hated driving so gave up. Life events took over and prevented me from going back. I'm now reliant on My DH and do wish I had more independence.

I suppose we all have a few regrets. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say, and the decisions we made in the past were made with the circumstances and situations we were in then, not now.
I’m in a completely different situation ( & I’d go as far to say a different person ) to what I was 30 years ago, so pointless regretting something I did then.
That’s life. We live & learn.

There are choices I wouldn’t make now, with hindsight, or in today’s world, but more generally I wish I had travelled more when I was younger and especially when I was in my sixties.

Only one real regret... That I had not listened to my Mum when she said Nursing was too hard a career as I would have loved to have been a midwife. I nearly managed it when my 3 DDs were 12, 10 and 8 only to find I was expecting what turned out to be DD4.

Kandinsky

I suppose we all have a few regrets. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as they say, and the decisions we made in the past were made with the circumstances and situations we were in then, not now.
I’m in a completely different situation ( & I’d go as far to say a different person ) to what I was 30 years ago, so pointless regretting something I did then.
That’s life. We live & learn.

Best answer on here.

I married far too young, which I can’t regret as it meant I was in the right place to meet mr i. 42 very happy years together, with children and now grandchildren

Yes we make mistakes thst give us the opportunity to change and grow.

I wish that I had known at 25 what I know now in my 70s. I think the Internet has exposed a lot of knowledge of how people are and how human systems operate. In my day you just knew from experience, what others said, or media. I would not have wasted my time on people who were drama queens, shady blokes, or listened for hours to self obsessed friends. But I suppose it all builds into life experience which I now look back on with a wry smile.

I wouldn’t change much, if anything. I was lucky in that a university tutor got me a scholarship to do a higher degree in London, and that changed my life. Without it, I would probably have stayed put where I was and not expanded.

I’d have liked a daughter, but it would have been impractical to have more children after my two sons.

We are where we are - is my mantra.

On balance I wouldn't change a thing.

Cossy

M0nica

Non, je ne regrette rien.

It is easy to think just one step ahead, but if you had set your business up earlier Rocketstop2. It might have failed, it may have ended in you being killed in a road accident because a business journey meant you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.You cannot just think one step ahead.

My life has been full of junctions where I have had to choose which route to follow. Some decisions have been right, others have been wrong, but all in all I am now over 80, and I regret nothing, much better things to do and think about to waste time on fruitless regrets.

Fabulous answer 🥀

Smug, if you ask me😁

I can’t believe people have absolutely no regrets if they look back searchingly over their lives.
It’s unrealistic, there must be something!

I wouldn't have married my OH. I didn't want children because I was more career focused.

I do regret not having travelled more. I did get as far as Beirut just before the war started however many years ago, but I would have loved to have visited Singapore and Hong Kong.

I have been happier since divorcing in 1988.