Have you had a Sliding Doors moment in your life?

I believe that every decision we make is a sliding doors moment, and everything could have a different result. Some more significantly than others.

Last week I popped out to walk DM's dog. Pretty standard, but I dithered and went back in the house 2 or 3 times, which meant that I was walking past a shop at the exact time that someone I hadn't seen for months was leaving it. Got talking, and he ended up doing me a massive favour this week, which has helped me very significantly. If I'd remembered my sunglasses, none of that would have happened.

Yes I think so.

Back in 2020 a couple of months before lockdown, I had an on/off relationship which was coming to the end. He was away for the weekend with his friends and I went out with a friend in London.

We had dinner booked in Covent Garden and having a wine in a nearby pub beforehand. We got up to leave the pub to go for dinner and as we were walking out, 2 men walked in. One of them looked at me and I looked at same time and it was like electricity. We were just staring at each other unable to break our gaze. Its like time stood still. My friend then says ‘come on we’ll be late for our booking’ which broke my stare and i reluctantly went off to eat. We went back to the pub after dinner but they’d gone.

I later found out my partner had gone to a woman’s room that weekend and I ended it with him.

The whole situation lasted less than a minute but something about it has stuck with me as a ‘what if’ for over 4 years now.

I took a wrong turn looking for the cafe I was supposed to meet my friend in for lunch, and spotted that one of my favourite shops was looking for weekend staff (I was a post-grad student). I applied, got the job, and met my now DH.

I didn't even know that particular shop had a branch in my uni city, so would never have seen the job if I hadn't turned off one street too early.

15 years and two children later, I'm very glad I did!

Yes a few bad things happened in the space of a couple of weeks/months led to me quitting my job and moving hundreds of miles away very suddenly in the middle of the night. my very new partner chose to come with me that night, we now have a beautiful house and a beautiful baby together. If the bad things never happened I don't know where either of us would be now. Was the worst thing that ever happened to us and the best all at once. I'm actually very grateful that it did. I think about it everyday.

I have been severely allergic to animal fur and dander my entire life, so haven't had pets - cats in particular could induce an asthma attack within minutes.

When I go round to friends' houses I always dose myself with super strong antihistamines.

I was going to see a friend but at the last minute we changed the venue to her house - and I was already out and about so didn't go home first to get my medication.

I realised 2 weeks later I'd had no reaction to her cats. I went to two cat cafes to test it out and had no reaction at all to any of the cats.

We therefore now have 2 gorgeous rescue cats that are a joy.

Not earth shattering but looking at the cat sleeping on my window sill I am so glad I didn't take the tablet just one time in over 30 years!

Is not every second, in every day a sliding doors moment?

Had I not logged on that internet dating site, had the Saturday night date not had a 'headache' and I asked my now husband to meet me that night instead. I wouldn't have the house I live in I would probably have had a child but not my precious daughter another precious child but not the same I wouldn't have the memories we share. I wouldn't have the job I have as I don't think I'd have known about it (my husband mentioned a niche role was available at work and they couldn't fill it and I hated my current place of work so took a plunge and applied just to get out of the job I was in thinking it would be a stepping stone to pay the bills temporarily in a really different industry to what I was employed in which led to other opportunities)

Who knows.

The whole point of sliding doors was that she didnt know what the alternative reality was.

Nor do we

.... when I went for interview, and raining at Uni B. The MSc became a PhD, where I met the person who is now DH of 24 years.... turns out Uni A was particularly involved in a field I have found fascinating, and built into a career of nearly 30 years. It's not something Uni B was interested in.

Got offered 2 funded places to do my MSc. Course Uni A because it had been sunny when

A big Sliding Doors moment for A level students would be their university choice. Depending on how well they do in their exams, they will have got either their 1st, 2nd or 3rd university choice. That massively impacts on who you meet, who your long term partner will be, who your housemates will be etc.

I ended up with my 2nd university choice and I sometimes think what course my life would have taken if I got my 1st choice.

I love these types of threads. Different people use mumsnet at different points in time so you get different responses. I like that you have asked the question again

Doesn't matter as you're unlikely to be at the same parties...

Only in that I got my hair all cut off like GP does in the film. Unfortunately, I ended up looking more like David Beckham that Gwynnie!

I bet you're fun at parties....

Many years ago I was moving overseas to work with my then boyfriend. We hadn’t been getting on well, and I thought maybe we just needed a change of scene. Due to fly out in the new year. Spent Christmas with my parents and an old on off boyfriend called me and asked me out for a drink on Boxing Day. I went, it was amazing and as if we had never been apart. I always thought I would end up with him. If he had asked me not to go abroad and to stay with him, I would have done so in a heartbeat. He didn’t. I went overseas with my boyfriend, we split up after a few months. I then met my husband, whom I’ve been married to for over 20 years. Never heard from the on/off boyfriend again.

I was offered two jobs and essentially chose one on the flip of a coin. I am now with and have two DCs with someone from the team I joined.

Mid 20s, young happy and stupid, out partying with my friends, we were all in the back of the car (3 of us), music on loud, laughing, shouting, messing about, we'd been drinking, the driver was going too fast, only the passenger in the front seat who has been turning round to speak to us for ages happened to look forward a split second before the driver, who hadn't been concentrating, would've hit a wall and swerved the wheel...noone was hurt. Luck doesn't even begin to cover it. I don't think the driver had been drinking as it's unlikely wed have gotten in the car, I can't remember, but I often remember that and think how bloody lucky I am. Big sliding doors moment!
.
Have a couple of others but they're too outing!

They've made a TV series of it now too, it's on AppleTV.

Life is absolutely full of these but the one that stands out is a decision my former employer took to interview me about 10 years ago. I was running late already for the interview and then went to the wrong office, like an idiot. She told me that she was very close to rejecting me but decided to give me the benefit of the doubt when I finally got to the right office.

If she hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have moved to the city I currently live in, wouldn’t have met DH, wouldn’t have DD, it really would all have been different.

I love that kind of thing.

Well I enjoyed reading this thread, even if there were two other similar ones. Geez! Do people think that every poster sees every thread! If a thread title is boring, don't click on it!

I don't know if this counts but when I got the sack from a job many years ago in my early 20s, a colleague ended up with twice the work. I was on a tube platform wondering who i'd get to fill the other room in house share when I saw him ten feet away! he'd walked out of the job because he had twice the work and he'd taken a job in London. So he ended up in the other room. Years later I relocated back to my home town (before him) and then a few months later I saw him at the station in my home town. So it was weird, more like is that you on the train platform, of course it is

I agree with the pps saying that life is an endless series of sliding doors moments, and some of them are bound to be much more significant than others. I have some pretty major regrets about my life but I'd be reluctant to go back and take a different path because then I might not have the husband, child, and friends I have now, and that thought terrifies me. Of course I might have had equally good people in my life if I'd done things differently, and I'm sure I've missed out on some amazing experiences and people due to my choices, but I don't really care!