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Original poster

What is your biggest regret?

151 replies

Whatsmyusername1235 · 05/12/2023 18:54

What have you done that you regret the most? I’m just sat at home feeling sorry for myself and very regretful about something I’ve done recently. What would you take back if you could?

OP posts:
starlightcan · 05/12/2023 23:25

TotalAbsenceOfImperialRaiment · 05/12/2023 23:24

Not buying bitcoin in 2014.

Man, I thought about it in 2013 but thought it had already peaked… that and I couldn’t get my head round how to mine them

LittleMissSunshiner · 05/12/2023 23:27

OftIwandered · 05/12/2023 23:18

I regret not being with my father when he died. I wanted to pretend he wasn't so ill, sitting at his hospital bedside meant acknowledging he was dying.

So sorry :(

RosePetals86 · 05/12/2023 23:32

Not buying a detached- don’t think we could afford one now!

thebestinterest · 05/12/2023 23:32

Not trying harder in school, and just leaving when things got hard. I’m kicking myself now as I try to figure out how I’m going to go back and manage with a young child.

thebestinterest · 05/12/2023 23:35

SallyWD · 05/12/2023 22:08

That I didn't establish a good career. I'm now late 40s and earning peanuts.

Feeling this

honeyfox · 05/12/2023 23:36

Probably starting smoking. I'm still smoking (part-time at 45). What a waste of health and money. It's so hard to stop.

LuluBlakey1 · 05/12/2023 23:40

I wish I had taken up a place I had to do medicine at uni and not had a year out and then drifted into teacher training. I have regretted it more as time has passed. Thought about doing something about it at 32 but then had 3 DC and by 43 I was too old. I don't hate my job but I will always wish I had been a Dr.

thebestinterest · 05/12/2023 23:44

Sunflower8848 · 05/12/2023 23:00

Not comforting my sister when she was upset, she hung herself a few hours later.

oh DEAR. I am so, so sorry 😞

Artichoke88 · 05/12/2023 23:45

I regret wasting so many years putting certain family members' emotional needs first, resulting in me spending most of my youth at home and missing out on having fun with friends. When years later I got married, they couldn't handle me being happy and their jealousy resulted in a complete split which has lasted over 2 decades.

Aroundthewaygirl · 05/12/2023 23:52

So so many…

Not answering his phone call

going back home to live with my DM after college

who I chose to be the father of my DD

meeting my last two exes, wasted so many years with them and altho there were red flags I ignored them as I was desperate not to be alone

Going to college

Strawberrycheesecake7 · 06/12/2023 00:08

Deciding to stop talking to people as a child. I used to be very sociable. When I was about 10 I was being teased a lot and thought that avoiding talking wherever possible would give people less to tease me for. It didn’t work and now I’m an adult with incredibly poor social skills.

QuickDraining · 06/12/2023 00:19

Falling over in the middle of the night and causing myself irreparable damage is my latest.

But wishing I'd done better at school.

Wishing I'd got a well paid steady job when young.

Those kind of things.

And the, did I really do that, night terrors, oh so embarrassing things that you remember for a small while, and it becomes all consuming, but luckily you forget the next morning.

Tiedtoatwat · 06/12/2023 00:22

Sandiegodreaming · 05/12/2023 22:37

Not liviing in Germany for a year on my year out from Uni

Oh I hear you! I should have gone to France on a year out from uni, but at the time I thought 5 years was too long for an Arts degree... it was nothing in your early 20s ffs!

If I had done that, I would never have met The Twat of my username. Though I also wouldn't have had my three amazing children, nor would I have met one of my oldest and dearest friends of 40 years.

I wish I had never taken sides in a power struggle between very senior managers that in the end, fucked up my career. My integrity remains intact, but it doesn't pay the bills.

That I didn't accept the job offer that would have avoided the above, with that job being almost immediately regraded after I turned it down, and wouldn't have involved a 64 mile daily commute. My mother put me totally off it by saying that it would be good if I had children, and I didn't want them at the time!

Getting a 2ii in my degree after 2xA and 2xB in my A levels (pre A*) - but it spurred me on to get a Distinction in my MSc.

That when the One Who Got Away when I was just 19 asked if I would be in the city over Christmas, I said no, because I had a Christmas job... then he met someone else and dumped me... but his wife is quite frumpy (he was always so trendy and cool!) and my kids are better looking than his so...😄

Salome61 · 06/12/2023 00:37

I regret not appreciating my late husband for what he did do. I did used to moan a lot about the things he didn't do.

Psychoticbreak · 06/12/2023 00:41

Getting married. It took far too long to get a divorce and he was an odious little prick once that ring went on my finger.

SnobblyBobbly · 06/12/2023 00:44

Not following my own instincts and pushing for a referral to the breast unit.

Spartak · 06/12/2023 00:47

Not having children. I pretended I was happy on my own and now it's too late.

I would have been happy with one. Once
work settles down a bit, I'm going to get a dog. I know it's not the same, but it will help fill the hole in my heart a little.

PupInAPram · 06/12/2023 00:57

Letting my ex convince me to prioritise his career over mine. He then buggered off with an 18 year old and a great career leaving me scrabbling to find work with a baby, a toddler and no support whatsoever. How I wish I could have a do-over on that one!

SittingHereInLimbo · 06/12/2023 01:02

Not telling someone about the emotional abuse and neglect I suffered at my mother's hands which has blighted my entire life.

I didn't know that's what it was at the time so thought I was the problem.

But if I had summoned up the courage to tell a friend or a teacher about what life at "home" was like, they would have been horrified and perhaps I could have got some kind of help before it was too late.

Jeelypieces20storeys · 06/12/2023 01:03

My abortion. 23 years now and the regret gets worse with every year that passes.

urrrgh46 · 06/12/2023 01:03

Meeting and getting with my just exDH - he's destroyed my mental health, which was just repaired when I met him.

Aydel · 06/12/2023 01:14

I regret not bringing my Mum home from hospital in her final days and having 24 hour nursing for her at home. There’s no way I could have afforded this myself, but I found out, after she died, that she had left me an obscene amount of money. Had I known of its existence, or even a fraction of it, I’d have spent it on bringing her home.

EmmaEmerald · 06/12/2023 01:25

ShirleyPhallus · 05/12/2023 19:01

It’s better to regret something you do do, than something you don’t do

This expression is so stupid, beyond stupid really.

Selling my lovely flat in a shitty area and moving to a crap one in a nice area. Still nearly in tears about it yesterday. An improvement on six months of tears I guess.

aus12 · 06/12/2023 01:29

Moving to Australia. Wish we had of stayed in the UK. Life isn’t as great here as most people think it is.

BreadInCaptivity · 06/12/2023 01:43

aus12 · 06/12/2023 01:29

Moving to Australia. Wish we had of stayed in the UK. Life isn’t as great here as most people think it is.

Interesting - why?

Only because I have friends who've emigrated and "wax the life fantastic" online but in private messages there seems to be some discontent- the cost of living being a large factor.