What did your life look like when you were half your current age?

[OneFancyTealQuail]

I was 16 just done my gcses about to go into six form college

I was 18 and a bit, so I had been living on my own for almost two years, I was in my second year of A-level, but still doing my As-Levels as I had to work so much during the first year of college that my work was neglected. I was playing rugby professionally, working fulltime and studying four A-levels, so I was pretty busy really. I was living in Hoxton, my bedroom in a house share didn’t have a window, it was a large cupboard really, but it was mine and it was the first place I’d ever had a room that was just for me, it was brilliant.

I had moved to London a couple of years previously and was working in a dream job with lots of international travel and glamourous nights out. I desperately wanted DC and had to wait another 6 years for that to happen.

I was 35, two DC aged 6 and 1, working full time. Three years into a relationship with a verbally, physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic and still trying to make it work because I believed him when he said it was all me. If only I'd had Mumsnet then!

I was 18, homeless and in the grip of a mental illness. My life looks very different now, thank god.

25, and 1 year old and 4 year old, traveling around Europe and North Africa with my now DH.
great times!

I was 23, working on my PhD and living in a small but cosy flat with my partner. Not much money, but lots of friends around and life was fun and uncomplicated! I went to both Paris and Boston that year to do research, and enjoyed the travel and meeting new people. Still felt like a simpler, more enjoyable era and with a Labour government and a new millennium, it seemed like things were getting better.

Mid 90s, I was 26/27, earning about 12k in a marketing assistant type role and moving into our first house. Which had no bathroom facilities or carpets. We stayed renting two rooms in a shared house for a month after we got the keys in order to get the basic sanitation and one room (lounge) decorated!

Working abroad, lots of friends, well paid and living life intensely. Glad I did it but I'm happier now despite life's current complications and difficulties than I was then.

In my 20s and had been married for 3 years.

I was 22 and had a young baby so I can't really remember much it is a blur !

I was almost 21 and getting ready for my baby's 1st birthday. Living with my then fiancé (now ex). We were poor but happy.

Said baby is about to turn 21 himself. I can't imagine him being a parent!

I was 30 years old and had just signed divorce papers from my first husband. I was living with a friend in her house as a lodger, socialising and having a generally nice time dating lots of people, sometimes more than one at a time. I was working hard, going on great holidays solo and genrally just having fun being single. I didn't meet dh until I was 36 so this went on for some time

I was 25 and my life was a car crash. Think living on own, away from family support and drinking and dodgy decisions and dodgy men. Thankfully I am much calmer now.

23, newly married, we just bought a home, I was working ft and doing post-grad studies on an evening. I felt like there was an urgency to life that I couldn't put my finger on but it served us well to have some equity and stability prior to the financial crash.

Carefree and globe-trotting.

i was 24. One of the most exciting periods of my life.

I’d just landed my absolute dream job, I was sharing a flat in central London with my best friend and we were out most nights living it up - we went to NYC that summer and had a lot fun adventures,

I’d just started dating my now DH. It was very early days and he seemed very sweet, but I wasn’t sure if it would be more than a summer fling…😆

28, 2 years married and I think my xh had just had a vasectomy. It was therefore being borne in on me that when he said he didn’t want children, he really meant it.

Bought our first house, a fixer-upper, AKA money pit. 10 yr mortgage of 60K. No kids yet. Slim, happy and healthy, perfect skin. Both parents so well - (how I took this for granted). Long haul holidays when they were affordable. Looking back, actually, not a care in the world, no clue about real worries.

I started reading that and thought you were now at least 186 years old! 🤣

Wow! This made me think.
I was 24 and made a huge descision to quit a job that I hated and was making me ill. My fiance asked me to move 200 miles away and start a new life where he worked. I did it and they were the most scary, yet exciting times ever. I did move back a few years later— and split with him (amicably) after having our DC. The move moved my career forward so positively, I made amazing friends and have some great memories of those times. So glad I took the plunge 😅

I was 17, in my first year of sixth form. Having a great time, made lots of friends, loving my subjects and had met my now DH in my first politics lesson - there was a lot of eye contact and blushing occurring!

Laughing reaction back please, MN

I was married to my first DH and weekends generally consisted of cleaning the bathroom, doing the laundry, running him around in the car (he never learned to drive), pretending to watch him play football, tackling whatever DIY couldn't be put off any longer, typing up things he needed for work and/or revising his CV, cooking meals, etc.

I left him in my late 30s and weekends got a whole lot more interesting 🌞

In an awful toxic relationship which I’d eventually get the courage to end to go travelling for a year!

I was 22 with 1 year old DS, absolutely loving being a mum. I’d started a p/t job that helped me meet some incredible women, and I was planning my wedding to DH.