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AIBU?

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Original poster

It started around age 35 and just gets stronger as the years go by

58 replies

Chemtrailsoverthecountryclub · 22/05/2025 23:00

Nostalgia and thinking of the past-childhood, teens, twenties…

Mid 40’s now and have always been a bit nostalgic, but it didn’t really kick in hugely until mid thirties. I noticed a lot of people from school reconnecting, thoughts of old loves, teenage years.

Now at 47, it’s stronger than ever. My life is nice, nothing missing, but I think a lot about childhood, my teens, where I used to live, all my family when living at home and it just gives me such a pang of sadness…I know i’ll look back on these times of Dc being young in the same way.

Does anyone else have this? Instagram seems to be full of it. I wonder why we as humans are like this.

It’s such a cliche but life really does fly by so quickly

OP posts:
Answeringaquestiontonight · 22/05/2025 23:19

Yes, particularly about the late 90s which just seemed more hopeful times.

Surelythistime · 22/05/2025 23:18

One day you’ll also look back on now with the same nostalgia. Every day is ‘tomorrows’ nostalgia. Weird thought.

Original poster
Chemtrailsoverthecountryclub · 22/05/2025 23:17

Typin · 22/05/2025 23:10

I'd love to have had a happy childhood to look back on. I don't mean to be patronising but you are one of the lucky ones.

I do reminisce about my university days as that was when i felt free and happy. I think it increases with age.

It wasn’t all great at all (family wise at least) but just being young with the world at your feet, all
your friends, the laughs etc

OP posts:
Original poster
Chemtrailsoverthecountryclub · 22/05/2025 23:15

Chickoletta · 22/05/2025 23:14

Hold on to those days with young children - those are the ones I’d give anything to do again despite also loving life with my brilliant teens.

Yes I almost know that whilst in the moment and that also makes me sad as my 7 year old is growing so fast

OP posts:
Chickoletta · 22/05/2025 23:14

Hold on to those days with young children - those are the ones I’d give anything to do again despite also loving life with my brilliant teens.

sundaybloodysunday12 · 22/05/2025 23:12

I feel the same, and I’ve noticed the same on social media so I imagine it’s very common.

My family is now very small - lots of deaths, few branches of the family moved to Australia / NZ and we are unlikely to see them again, lots of family fall outs and branches of the family we don’t speak to anymore.

It’s therefore incredibly painful looking back on those days before it was all so complicated and fractured.

Bittersweet, but definite bitter than sweet in my case.

I think, ultimately, life is short, and nobody believes that when they are young. By the time they believe it, it’s too late to go back and enjoy / appreciate what they had.

The world is also just moving so fast - tech now is just so different to how it was when I was growing up in the 90s, that the past just seems so alien to us now sometimes….but he also yearn for that “simpler time”.

I quite often think about my kids lives and wonder “will they look back on these days as the halcyon days? Will they be nostalgic for this?”

They have lovely lives. But it’s different to my childhood. We have no family around us, it’s just us and my husband. And I feel a lot of guilt about that quite often.

I think as well it’s a yearning for our youth. I’m early 40s and a lot of my friends have got separated / divorced in past few years. Not one of them has gone out and found a “new man”. They have all reconnected with men from their past, ex boyfriends or whatever.

i can understand that. To a new guy, they are just a 40 year old woman. But to the guys from the past, they see the 18 year old my friends used to be.

I don’t know. It’s human nature, I suppose.

Typin · 22/05/2025 23:10

I'd love to have had a happy childhood to look back on. I don't mean to be patronising but you are one of the lucky ones.

I do reminisce about my university days as that was when i felt free and happy. I think it increases with age.

Littledidsheknow · 22/05/2025 23:04

Oh god, yes… I went for a “walk” on google street view around my old house and neighbourhood where I grew up yesterday. Such a nice place and mostly happy days. The freedom I had as a child in the 70s was amazing!