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Original poster

What's been your biggest regret in life?

94 replies

cluckyduckyfeelinglucky · 15/04/2022 20:54

I wish I could go back and redo my school years. I would study much harder to get a better job and I'd relish those carefree days when all that matters is your social life. I have a good life, great hubby and I am lucky that I have a wonderful supporting family on both sides.

I also wish a could go back and undo some mistakes I made, can't be done now but I do wish there was a time travel button.

I also wish I had traveled more before having a family. America mainly

OP posts:
Calafsidentity · 15/04/2022 23:40

@Calafsidentity

Um. It's the entire point surely?
^^ This is in response to fridaRose
SarahDippity · 15/04/2022 23:41

@CrowAndArrow

Nothing. I am who I am today because of the mistakes I made yesterday.
This.
Phos · 15/04/2022 23:44

Two things. I should have broken up with my ex much much sooner and not married him. Wasted so much of the prime of my life on him

Also regret having done a degree in Modern Languages. Completely pointless skill unless you want to teach/translate or happen to get a job in an international company. If I’d done something useful like maths I would have a much more secure and interesting career

Pember · 15/04/2022 23:53

Not calling my grandma straight after Christmas to thank her for our presents as I usually would have done. It was our daughter’s first “proper” Christmas and we were very busy (no excuse).

Grandma aged nearly 91 had bought DD a lovely toy, then changed her mind after a few days’ thought and got the bus back into her nearest big city to exchange it for something she thought she’d like even more. DD loved it.

She was such and incredibly sweet and thoughtful grandma who also raised my amazing mum alone. She died suddenly at the start of January and I still hadn’t called her. I will always regret that and it’s a silly small thing but it always makes me teary thinking about it.

Okaaaay · 15/04/2022 23:59

@Pember your grandma sounds lovely - so sorry for your loss (your post made me teary too)! Try to free yourself from the regret - what would she have written in response to your post? Probably not to worry at all, that she knew it would be a busy time and that her joy was in buying the presents in the first place (rather than the thanks) Flowers

Shehasadiamondinthesky · 16/04/2022 00:06

Getting married twice when I'm so much happier on my own. Now permanently single.
Trying to make a go of it with my parents when we have absolutely nothing in common and can't stand each other. Waste of my life trying to get approval from people who don't want me around.
Other than that I can truly say I've done and achieved everything I wanted in life and I'm feeling good about life.

Shuuu · 16/04/2022 00:20

@HerRoyalHappiness

I regret telling the nun I was raped. She didn't tell anyone else, she didn't help me tell my parents. She just said boys will be boys and I must have wasted it to happen. I was fucking 11. I regret never telling my parents because that bitch of a nun made me believe no one would ever believe me and now I'm older I just can't bring myself to break my mums heart. I regret going back to my ex when I thought no one else would ever love me and putting up with more years of abuse from him. I regret working myself to the point I was too unwell to even take my children on a day out.
I’m so sorry. People will believe you ❤️
Lucia23 · 16/04/2022 00:27

Always one isn't there. A lot of people at least know the meaning of the song title even if they don't speak French.

@Lampzade probably knows this!

Thejoyfulstar · 16/04/2022 00:36

'Je ne regret rien' is a very famous song about having no regrets! I don't need to speak French to get the reference any more than I need to speak Spanish to understand 'feliz navidad' (another famous song/phrase). Come on!

goingback · 16/04/2022 00:41

regret most of the no's- no i can't take the summer job in Spain, no i wont work for free as an intern in an industry i really want to be in. no i dont want your babies,

MMBaranova · 16/04/2022 00:52

Talking with older relatives who are now dead.

Usedtobeme20 · 16/04/2022 01:03

@fridaRose are you serious?

Je ne regrette rien is one of the most famous songs globally by Edith Piaf. It's unanimous with the phrase - I regret nothing. It makes complete sense in the context of this thread. It's all about a person who regrets nothing - not the good or bad or anything that has come to pass in their life.

Most people know this surely?!

GreenLunchBox · 16/04/2022 01:14

Most of us don't speak French.
What is the point of this?

Is this real?

LondonQueen · 16/04/2022 01:14

Drinking tonight! I can't sleep now.

GreenLunchBox · 16/04/2022 01:15

That's what I thought, @Usedtobeme20
You articulated that better than me. I think it's just an angry person trying to make a snide remark at somebody on the internet and making themselves look foolish

GreenLunchBox · 16/04/2022 01:17

@HerRoyalHappiness

I regret telling the nun I was raped. She didn't tell anyone else, she didn't help me tell my parents. She just said boys will be boys and I must have wasted it to happen. I was fucking 11. I regret never telling my parents because that bitch of a nun made me believe no one would ever believe me and now I'm older I just can't bring myself to break my mums heart. I regret going back to my ex when I thought no one else would ever love me and putting up with more years of abuse from him. I regret working myself to the point I was too unwell to even take my children on a day out.
Sad
FrankLeeSpeaking · 16/04/2022 01:18

Letting someone emotionally and mentally abuse me well into adulthood until it wrecked my mental health completely.

LateNightLoveAffair · 16/04/2022 01:21

A)getting fat
B) wrecking my credit rating
C) not looking after my teeth
And D) meeting my DP. Which is sad because we have been together 5 years, we love each other, we have a lovely, lovely life with holidays and weekends away and relaxed nights in and crazy nights out. We get on so well, don’t stop laughing, he has been my rock through really hard times, celebrated every win with me, commiserated on every loss, he has been everything I ever wanted from a man. But we have been together 5 years, we don’t live together, getting married isn’t on the horizon, neither is kids. We have 2 best friend couples and today one has announced their engagement and the other their pregnancy. Thrilled for them both but this has reminded me of what I don’t have. (I have a ds so the baby thing isn’t so bad). But I feel like my life has no Future, and today has just solidified that. We talk about the future but nothing solid and I’m
Sad that one day soon my heart will get broken. I wish I’d never met him, then I wouldn’t haven’t m known how good it could be

thefatpotato · 16/04/2022 01:34

I would have studied and got some qualifications before kids.

I would have bought in a slightly different area when we bought our first house. We'd be almost mortgage free if we had!

Have focused more on my hobbies before I had kids. I distinctly remember a weeks holiday when I was younger where I mostly pottered around the flat and watched shitty TV rather than spend time doing a hobby. I cry to think of having a whole week to myself now and all the wonderful things I would do with the free time!

Otherwise, nothing tbh. We have a very comfortable life. Even some of the really bad decisions (sleeping with ransoms after a night out 🧐) make for great memories- mostly because nothing bad happened!

thefatpotato · 16/04/2022 01:36

@PermanentTemporary

Hard to genuinely regret anything as I know why I made the decisions I did. I shouldn't have married my first husband but my regret is shallow because in fact breaking up with him was the making of me. A bit hard on the poor sod though.

I do kind of regret going to see my Mum on Saturday not Sunday. If I'd got there on Sunday she would almost certainly have been beyond help and would have died at home or in the ambulance. As I got there on Saturday, her life was saved and she is now severely disabled with no hope of improvement or independence.

I'm so sorry about your Mum.
notangelinajolie · 16/04/2022 01:58

Not having more babies. Accepting without question that my GP was giving the best advice without asking why or getting a second opinion. I should have fought harder and believed that it was possible.
This is a big regret for me ☹️

Spartak · 16/04/2022 02:04

Not having children.

Lampzade · 16/04/2022 02:46

@Thejoyfulstar

'Je ne regret rien' is a very famous song about having no regrets! I don't need to speak French to get the reference any more than I need to speak Spanish to understand 'feliz navidad' (another famous song/phrase). Come on!
Exactly
mythological · 16/04/2022 02:57

I regret making a journey down the fallopian tube to the uterus.

It's all been downhill from there.

EthelsAuntie · 16/04/2022 03:25

I regret not asking my father difficult questions about why he didn't like me and why he spread lies to his side of the family so they don't like me too.
I regret being passive and letting him treat me the way he did. I regret not at least shouting at him. My DM was seriously ill in hospital when things changed. I think he was struggling to cope with the situation but instead of accepting it was hard and rising to the challenge he picked fights with the 13 year old me.
I am a people pleaser and it definitely started about then.