Anyone else ever feel down about the opportunities in life that are now closed off to them?

[HappyLittleTreeFriend]

I mean things that are probably a bit ridiculous to think about. Like I feel sad that I’ll never get to live the life of a cowgirl on a ranch or sad that I didn’t get into surfing when I was a kid. Also things about my own family now, like constantly doubting where we live, should we have moved abroad with the kids before they started school and we were all settled and given them a different lifestyle. I mean we live in a beautiful place and have lots of friends there and a nice life. But then I hear about friends who have moved to places like Australia and their kids get this amazing outdoors lifestyle with beaches. And I feel like I’m letting my kids down not trying to provide that lifestyle for them and living in the UK where people always seem down about life here. Does anyone else think like this? How do you feel okay again with your own life? Am I just going bonkers and having a mid life crisis at the age of 36??

No one can do everything in one life

There's nothing wrong in thinking about what is best for your one life , playing our different ideas in your head and maybes exploring possibilities and making changes

But to let it get you down is less normal- why should learning something as a child that you can do as an adult be a real problem ? You may not be quite as good I guess but you only have one life - I'd worry less about being great and more about being happy and having fun

You’re totally right about the not worrying about being great part, maybe I have subconsciously focused on that a bit throughout my life. And yes, no one gets to do everything in one life. I know I need to focus on the moment, and I do have so much gratitude for everything that is good
in my life, recently it’s more this fear that I’m not providing the ‘best’ life for our kids - doesn’t help that friends/family who have emigrated to Australia/New Zealand/Canada often come into conversation or are always emphasising how wonderful life is for their kids in those countries vs the UK. We live in the countryside and it’s very beautiful with a lovely community and I know the kids are happy here, I just can’t seem to stop thinking we’re failing them by not moving abroad, it’s really making me feel down.

I suppose you could turn it around and say thank goodness you've got the life you've got, and have never been gored by a mad bull or pulled out to sea and drowned in a rip-current!

This is true 😂🙈 And maybe if I lived somewhere coastal and surfed I’d have things that I didn’t like so much about that area I guess or other problems. I mean I know this, but it’s just getting on top of me a lot lately. It doesn’t help that in particular friends who live in New Zealand keep getting held up by my husband/his family (they are close to them) as a shining example of living an amazing life, everything is better there than here, cleaner, more relaxed, houses are bigger, they live in a town with a beach, etc etc - it’s just making me feel like our life in the UK will always be inferior and in a way I don’t really care about that for myself I just care about my kids and how I feel I’m letting them down with this mediocre life.

Massive spiders and snakes. Don't get them in the uk 🤣