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Would you change anything about your past if you could - if so what? *Content warning- Post includes reference to stillbirth and self harm*

6 replies

Ilovepastafortea · 10/09/2025 19:25

Watching the One Show. It seems that there's a series coming on where people can change their pasts. Got DH & me talking about if we would change anything, if so what.

So, on reflection I wouldn't change anything.

There are things that I regret:

Our 4th child was stillborn, but, although I still mourn him & I still suffer from bouts of depression, I used to SH because I used to blame myself, also my depression stopped me feeling anything & the physical pain of SH reassured me that I was able to feel something. I have the scars on my body (including my forearms), but don't hide them because they are part of me & my journey.

However, I feel that the experience has made me a better more sympathetic person. I'm better able to listen, I have more patience with people's foibles. I feel that I am generally a nicer, more patient person as a result.

Then I had a very serious car accident where my heart stopped in the ambulance & has left me with life-changing injuries - not to mention the scars that totally trump my SH scars & can't be hidden-I have a several scars on my face as, despite my safety belt, the glass from windscreen peppered my face & the dashboard broke my cheek bone leaving a large scar down my face. There are other major scars on my body as well. As my GS once said I look like I've survived the 'death of a thousand cuts'

Again, this made me realise how precious life is, gave me a better understanding of how people with disabilities often struggle to live on a daily basis. It also stopped me SH as I finally realised that I wasn't to blame for our DS dying, it just one of those sad things that happened & helped me to focus on the children that I had.

DH's regrets are that he spent too much time on his businesses & playing rugby & left me to do the bulk of childrearing. He regrets that he missed out on many things because he just wasn't there. He also regrets that he left the bulk of the burden of childrearing, maintaining the house etc to me.

As they say when you were at school: discuss..

Edited to say that I've reported my post to MN because I wasn't able to add a TW to the title & have asked them to do this for me.

OP posts:
topcat2014 · 10/09/2025 19:41

I would wish for the adoption placement with us to have been a success rather than a disruption.

I do have a lot to be grateful for as well, if course

Onefortheroad25 · 10/09/2025 19:45

I wish I hadn’t let the fall out with my brother fester for so long. He died and we never got to make up.

Didntask · 10/09/2025 19:46

Everything from about age 14 onwards tbh.

Gladysknightjustwalkinmyshoes · 10/09/2025 19:48

Home life, schooling,drugs.

OldBird79 · 11/09/2025 10:40

I wish I hadnt lied to protect my Dad aged 12, when I had police and social workers asking me if he'd sexually abused me. Mine and my older sister's lives would've been so different and we might have gotten the chance to heal instead of having our adult lives blighted by serious mental illness and ptsd.

Spanador · 11/09/2025 10:55

It sounds very trivial compared to others, but I really wish I hadn't let myself get fat. It's so hard to turn it around the longer it goes on. If I could go back now I would have stopped it before it started

I also wish I could go back and not go out on a Friday night when I was involved in a really bad car crash after a drunk driver t-boned me at high speed

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