Do you ever regret having children?

Sorry, love my 3 children to bits and my grandchildren, however given a second chance, would not have had any. When I look at the world today, and the opportunities available, which I was unable to access in the 60's, I am sure children would not have been on my agenda.

Of course - and never in a million years - and I hold these views strongly and at the same time!

Dianeatdarcie tiny bit off topic but I was talking to a young Chinese student recently and we got onto the single child policy and how it was now relaxed. I won t have any children, she said emphatically. I want to do other things in my life.

She's doing a master's degree in English. She speaks 4 languages. She was an only child.

I was rather surprised and wondered to myself that she hadn't yet been in love!

My children are in their 40s and 50s and I love them both very much. I also love their DHs and the four GCs (2 each). I have to admit I don't always like what they do (particularly one DD). On the whole though they are pretty fantastic, no regrets whatsoever.

Never, my son is now 41 and I am proud of him.

We wanted to have 3 children but it wasn’t to be ?

Even with family estrangement which we are all currently living through, I don’t regret having my son, ever.

And now with 4 grandchildren, that’s even more blessings.....

Daddima - I worked for Lloyds Bank, and there was still a hangover from the practice of not employing married women. When I was married in 1966 I received “the married women’s allowance” which was £10 for each year you’d worked there. I’d started at 15 so £50 was a huge amount in the 60’s, and then carried on working. In the early ‘80’s when gender equality came in I discovered that when I got married I had “broken service” when I had received that money which was actually a “thank you and goodbye” and the five years between 15 and 20 could not count towards my pension!! £50 didn’t seem quite so much then?. I have two daughters, we’ve all always been really close and I am delighted with all the fun we’ve had and the joy they’ve brought.

Two in three years unplanned,hard work and barely out of my teens was to make me appreciate in later years just how much we had in common. You can say we grew up together.

I have three boys and got sick of people saying " aw no girls?" I love my boys and yes they are independent and I think a girl would of been nice but they are three great sons and dads so a good job well done I would say! Love m to bits !

Ditto Gillybob, never regretted it at all but would have been good to have been in better circumstances. Always thought must be so nice to be married/ in a permanent relationship and be looking forward to getting pregnant and preparing for a baby.

No never regretted have my dd or DS. All I regret or both of us do(dh of course) is losing our DS in 2007 at the age of 35.
We have lovely memories of ou children, and my Dd has been a godsend. We have also brought up our gd too. After ou DS died too. Her mother was a waste of space.

Brave of u to say

Never! My daughter is the best thing that has ever happened to me. We have always been incredibly close. She is kind, thoughtful, funny and extremely brainy. I am now the proud grandmother of her only daughter. My husband and I consider ourselves fortunate to have these two amazing females in our lives!

never i loved them at all stages of their childhood and adulthood and still do.

I have two sons, one of whom was the most impossible toddler ever. Even then I didn’t regret having children, not for a moment. Now that I’m old (79) I am incredibly grateful I have them. They are both good, and the impossible toddler has helped me so much when my health took a downturn. I can’t imagine what I’d have done without him.

I always wanted girls, but now it doesn't worry me at all that I didn’t have any. I have a granddaughter!

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride

Cant remember the rest ….its about having a watch and wearing it by my side.

Few people have no regrets about the path they took. I would have waited until 25 or even 30 to have had children, not in my very early 20s when we had no money. I had to have the kids looked after while I worked. Both lovely children and now I have wonderful grandchildren too.

No ...I never regret it, even though for no reason ever explained to me (no argument, falling out, nothing...which makes it harder to understand !) my only daughter has cut me off totally from her life. I discovered online she is married and has a son who is 3 ……..BUT I feel it is her life, I provided everything I could for her on my own ...private education, university (I paid the rent and fees) a car when she passed her test at 17 ….unconditional love, as you do, everything I possibly could to make her life easier …..no regrets, it is what you do for your children if you are able to …………………..but …….now I have an inheritance, I wonder …...do I leave her anything in my Will, or the grandson I have never, and likely never to, meet ………...I know where she lives and her married name, other than that ...nothing ! I really feel inclined to not bother ..although my solicitor says she may contest the Wll….yes, but since I have moved she will not know where I am, or that I have died (when I do !!),,,,,,,what would you do ?

Absolutely not!

I think I would ask my daughter by letter what I have done wrong and why she has cut me out of her life.
I would remind her that I am getting on in life and would like to make things up before it is too late.
Finally I would never cut my daughter out of my Will, no matter what. She is your flesh and blood after all, and so is her child.
My mother fell out with my brother on several occasions and kept changing her will to cut him out or to include him. Unfortunately he committed suicide at the age of 28. She said "And I had cut him out of my Will just before he did it." She always regretted it.

We chose to have 2 children and we had them exactly when we wanted them.
Quite scary really! DH had a vasectomy soon after our 2nd was born.
Our wider family is quite small so we are a close knit group and the cherry on top is our 2 grandchildren.
No regrets here

I love my children and grandchildren , am proud of them all, but if I had my life over again, knowing so much more about myself, I would neither marry nor have children.

Exactly the same, aroseby. We had very good reasons for stopping at 2 and DH said it was time for him to 'take one for the team'. No regrets at all here either- and never regretted not having more than two.

My eldest sister never had children and I remember her saying one day, on reading about an abandoned baby, I wish someone would leave one on my doorstep. It was heart-rending.

TBH at times I do wish so. I have 3 and I wish I had only had 1 or 2. Just being candid about it. I was talking to a friend today in her 60s and she said she wished she didn't have any and she had 4! I can see why this is a taboo subject as I am the only one who has answered in the negative.

I didn’t want children and ended up with 2, who I love beyond words.
The only regret in having them is what a terrible world they are growing up in especially if they have children of their own

I got married at 18 because I was having my son. I do regret it. I often wonder what my life would have been like if things had been different. I live about 20 minutes away from my son and family and l haven't seen them since Christmas. Before that it was last summer.