What are you wistful you will never do, be or see?

That I'll never have a daughter. I have a tricky relationship with my own mother and would have loved to have a chance to try to do it "right" with a daughter of my own. I love my DSs hugely so I have no regrets, it's more the wistful thought of what it might have been like to be a mother to a daughter.

There's bears and wolves where I live. I've not seen them myself but the local facebook group reports the occasional spotting of wolves (most recently near my friend's house about a month ago) and a bear was wandering around town last year, and a couple of years ago someone out in the forest with their dog (off-leash) had a very close encounter with a bear, who attacked the dog. The dog survived though thankfully, and the man was only threatened by the bear and then it ran off when he shouted.

I know this pain too.

Maybe i have missed the point id love to live in the 1920s and 30s but i cant.
So I'll enjoy life now.

I met my abusive ex when I was 16, we married at 24 and I left him at 26. He isolated me from my friends so I never had the experience of going for a girls night out, weekend away with girlfriends, going to a club or rave when I was in my late teens early 20s.

I made up for it in my late 20s and 30s and did things a lot of people will never experience, but I always feel a bit sad and annoyed that he/I stole my latter teenage and early 20s when you would be single and carefree. It was also in the 90s I'd have been that age and I really wanted to go to a proper rave and Ibiza with my friends.

I never got to give my children a decent father and a happy childhood of two parents who loved each other and continued to live in the same house. A proper family full of nice people.

I regret that I'll never be multilingual and will never progress much beyond toddler level at any languages I start learning now.

I'm a little sad that I'll never be a household name because of something remarkable I've done or achieved. I know fame is a mixed blessing and I know I don't have much talent for anything although I'm competent at doing everyday things, but still.

I do look back and wish I'd been able to spend more time with my children when they were very small instead of outsourcing most of their care.

But I made the decisions I made, and any of the Alternative Me scenarios might have envied me my particular career, my family, and my anonymity.

I have nerve damage in my foot and ankle from an injury, so need a stick to walk with, and even then it's tiring, I can't walk far, and need to keep stopping for rests. I'll never again be able to go for long walks in the country, or for coastal walks etc. But DH and I will go places in the car, find a place to park, and enjoy the view.

Me too.. love to have gone to Russia

<sigh> You're right. ☹️ I'm 53, post menopausal, and have managed to get my weight to just below 8 stone (I'm 5 foot nothing, so that's about right for me). But I'm saggy and scrawny now, a sight that only my DH of 25 years and medics will ever see, if I've got anything to do with it. But I look - I think - okay in clothes, so I console myself with that. 🤷‍♀️ Just not shorts. Unless opaques worn under shorts comes back in fashion... 🤔

I’ll not live in the UK again. When I moved away nearly 20 years ago I didn’t realise I wouldn’t be moving back. I’m only in Europe so could easily visit but it won’t be home ever again.

As for everything else I want to do, I’m still hopeful! There’s nothing I’ve totally written off apart from going to the Moon and unrealistic stuff like that.

Except for all the people like me and @Careforcarers !!!

Masses of commiserations to all those mourning the loss of the opportunity to visit Russia. 😭

I never seen Queen or Billy Connolly live.

I'll never be a size 14 again.

Me too. I'm in the same boat with my daughter. Trying not to be sad is a daily challenge 💐

25 and slim. Even if I one day finally manage to be properly slim, I'm already old and menopausal so I'll just be a middle aged, crepey, saggy, wrinkly kind of 'no longer fat' but with an overhanging stomach of excess skin, droopy tits and bingo wings and I still won't look any good in a pair of shorts.

I'll never know what it is to be young and slim and to be able to wear shorts with confidence.

Mine’s really pathetic. I’m Coeliac, and sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed with grief that I can never again eat another sandwich on nice bread, or pies, pasties, sausage rolls, Yorkshire puddings, beef wellington, fluffy sponge cake, apple crumble, pancakes, etc…

I have a wonderful life, but sometimes I’d swap it all for a bacon butty on crusty bread in a heartbeat.

@KellyanneConway @PoochiesPinkEars@Purplebunnie

Me too! Even the 1930s Bedale of my late mum’s childhood in had much more diversity and density of flowers, insects and birds. My mum loved to talk about the hedgerows and the woods of those years.

I read a lot of novels set in the 19th and 18th centuries and studied Old and Middle English at university and the poetry is full of descriptions of nature: the poet falling asleep under a tree on a May morning full of the sweet song of the birds. …

I often think how beautiful the country lanes that Lizzie Bennet tramped would have been, how important the changing seasons and how varied and distinctive the towns and villages of Britain would be with their vernacular architecture and building materials. I’m currently listening to the Wolf Hall trilogy on Audible for the second time and imagining the forests and meadows that the Tudor court hunted through with their falcons and hounds.

Fairy Tales were very much part of my childhood too. Studying Old and Middle English seemed like a natural progression.

I wouldn’t have wanted to live in those times when live was so hard and so unfair, but Oh! To be able to visit them and wander the country lanes and forest paths in a cloak of invisibility!

More prosaically I also wish I’d seen Freddie Mercury live and travelled to Russia. I went to Leningrad, as it was then, as a child and it was magical. I hope I can return one day.

Like a previous poster, I wish I could have travelled before the age of the car. The sequels to the What Katy did books give me a huge longing to live in Colorado among the beautiful canyons. Amy from Little women travels in Europe make me want to visit medieval Italian cities by coach. I would adore to canoe through the Canadian lakes with Valency Redfern.

I'm sorry that I'll never be really clever. I'm just about clever enough to know how lacking I am.

Also sorry that I'm just a bit shit at everything. I've nearly been good enough at various things - sports, professional skills, being properly slim - but always give up 90% of the way there because I lack willpower. The shit thing is that I could still probably fix some of that (I'm only mid-40s) but I don't really see the point due to aforementioned idiocy.

I will never be able to have another sunshine holiday and I wish that I could.
I have to be very careful not to get sunburned at all, my DH has to avoid extremes of hot and cold, and we are both immunosupressed so we won't be flying anywhere.

I can’t think of any, I have some things I’ve decided I don’t want to do again such as zip lining but I don’t feel sad about it.
I do have a long list of places I’d like to visit and hope I’ll be able to cross them off my list before I die.

That I'll never experience Concorde and I'll never go into space.

I desperately miss pre-covid life. I'm clinically vulnerable and it almost killed me the last time I caught it, so I still wear masks into busy places. I don't know if I'll ever really travel or enjoy life so recklessly as I used to again.