What do you like about being in your 30s?

[Zigzagzzz]

So I've just turned 30 and now feel like the best years of my life are behind me. I have one 7mo ds so no more carefree days and a body that probably won't be the same again!

So please tell me what you like about being in your 30s and if there's any reasons why it's better in your 30s than your 20s!

I finally have a job that I actually love with prospect for advancement. My child is 11 now and so getting more independent and I have more time for myself.

The best thing though is that having spent ten years single, I know myself better now and for the first time I actually like myself.

I've also got passed caring what other people think, I am who I am and that's it. I spent so long trying to be someone that I thought people would like now I'm comfortable being myself.

I will be 34 in a couple of months and I too had a bit of a panic when I turned 30. It will pass for you

I hated turning 30! I'm now totally cool with being in my 30s. I like being a grown up. My career has picked up now my DC are older, I have a great friendship circle.

I like that I'm almost invisible. If I get glammed up I still get attention but dressing professional whilst looking a bit older gives me the invisibility where I'm respected as a person and not as an object.

I'm much happier in my skin, and I'm much happier knowing when I say things it gets taken seriously rather than me being dismissed as being a silly girl.

It was a gradual process from 30 onward, but I no longer take it on the chin from anyone (especially at work).
I’m assertive and confident, no longer afraid to direct junior staff, no longer worried if I’m nice enough, no longer afraid to tell senior people they are wrong.

I don’t mean to put a dampener on things but I’m in my 30s now and I much preferred my 20s. I feel like things become more ‘settled’ in your 30s, but not necessarily in a good way. For me personally, I feel old now when I go nightclubs, I definitely can’t drink as much as I used to, hangovers are worse, I put on weight much more easily and my friends are all settled so we meet up a lot less often than we used to.

But that’s just me!

I feel a lot more secure in myself, I know who I am and more comfortable in my own skin. In my younger years I would be quite hung up on pleasing others - I’d go to things I didn’t really enjoy because people asked etc, now I am confident enough to say ‘actually, I don’t fancy that’.

Also I feel like I am more comfy in my looks, I know which clothes suit me after a few years of dodgy fashion choices! I’m better at hair and make up. I’m no supermodel and my boobs aren’t as perky as they once were, but I have accepted how I look, flaws and all.

I’ve realised that I don’t worry anymore what people think of me. Obviously I want my DH and family to love and think well of me, but I’ve stopped being a people pleaser and feel so much more free because of

Exactly this

Not caring what anyone thinks. Knowing how the world works, but still being young really

As someone whose sun is setting on her thirties rapidly I definitely feel more settled in myself and don't worry as much. Doing well in work, kids bit older now and life easier in many ways. I'm going to spend the next month having tantrums that I'm moving up an age bracket and then I'll be posting something similar about 40's 😬

I am so much happier!

I feel stable and secure and I'm married to my DH, we are financially comfortable, I know who I am and what I like, I'm not such a people pleaser...I'm fitter/healthier than ever, I appreciate every day, the list is endless. :)

I don't give a fuck, in general 😁

I am more confident.
I know how to say no.
I don't care what people think of me.
I wear what I want instead of following fashion.
I am more cultured, well read, better travelled and more experienced in general so feel I can handle better what life throws at me.
I know who my friends are.
I am married and have children.
I own a house.
I have a meaningful job.
I have the best paid job I have ever had.

Can't wait to be 50 though when kids have flown the nest! It will open up new opportunities!

I reckon every decade gets better (am mid 50s now).

Less angst, more acceptance.
As I get older I have, each decade, worried less about what anyone else thinks of me and do things just because I would like to or wear something because it is comfortable, and have become better at saying 'no' when asked to do things, etc.

My 30s were awesome, I lived abroad, my business took off, I travelled lots, partied lots, bought my first house, got married, had children and moved to and renovated our dream house. My confidence improved and I learnt to say no and to choose friends wisely.

My 40s haven’t been as great yet but I have hopes of them improving!

The one thing to remember about getting older is that it's better than the alternative!
Seriously by the end of my thirties I was happy. I'd become more comfortable in my own skin and my priorities are unrecognisable. Turning 30 was a sad time for me, lonely, obsessed about work and health. Turning 40 I had a family, house and a job that I leave at work. do love to be 31 again - 21 not so much!

You're 30, with decades of life and almost endless opportunities ahead of you. How incredibly lucky and exciting.

Your body is changed, by you've not referred to disabilities so sounds like you're in decent health and your prospects aren't hampered and you're not living with a life limiting illness, facing your own mortality on the near horizon. How incredibly fortunate and such a precious gift.

You're lucky enough to have a child, who it sounds is also in good health otherwise I imagine you'd have phrased your post differently. Sure, it's not all rainbows and moonbeams but what about the tremendous privilege of having him in your life and adventuring together through it?

And yet you're whingeing about your life being effectively over? You'd probably be a lot happier and less bloody crass if you paid attention to the many glorious things filling your life and all the wonderful possibilities before you. There is so much you could do with the life you have!

Try spending your thirties noticing all the things you have and how lucky you are, instead of spending the next fifty or sixty or seventy years moping about the life you're currently living being over. It's not. So live it.

I’m so much happier in my thirties than I was in my twenties. I know who I am and what I want, and have enough confidence in myself to not care what others think. My twenties were too ‘try hard’ and worries about who I was, where I was going and what others thought. I now have a calm acceptance of things, much more peaceful in myself.

I had lots of fun in my 20s - partied, went to university, started my career, travelled the world, got married, bought my first home.

My 30s I’ve got my dream job and I’m starting a family. I don’t care what people think of me and I’ve got more confidence. 30s is great 👍

I hated turning 30, for me it's been downhill from 21.
Except for my resilience and proving to myself how capable I am in all situations I've encountered.

I hated my 30th but I'm now 40 and loved my 30s, much more than my 20s. I had met my now DH, had a good, well established career, money, independence, travelled, no children. In hindsight I absolutely loved it. I'm now 40 with two very young DC and I am starting to look older, lines, bags under my eyes, feeling tired, aching joints, grey hairs etc. 30 is still young so enjoy!

I don't stress as much. I am much more relaxed when it comes to other people's opinions, for example. I just let it go. And that was something I could never do in my 20's. If someone says "Did you hear what so and so said about you?" My answer now is "No and I don't want to" whereas before, I would have said "Yes! Please tell me!" And I would over analyze it all for days, all the while losing sleep over it and feeling sick over someone else's opinion of me. Now, meh, whatever. That is very freeing

I loved my 30s. At 30, I lost 4 stones in weight in 3 months that I'd put on after quitting smoking. I developed my style and looked pretty good.

I did a professional qualification and left a clerk job I'd been in for 12 years. Ended up with a job which, in hindsight, was the best job I've ever had.

We bought our dogs, despite me generally having a fear of them, and experienced the unconditional love that only dogs give. My life felt so rich because of them.

I enjoyed some wonderful holidays experiencing some of the USA's national parks.

It was great, a time before there were fractured relationships and bereavements in the family.

Just turned 30 too OP and feeling exactly the same. This thread is helping immensely!

So many people have said what I was going to say - not caring what other people think of me. How sad that so many of us only feel this way once we get into our thirties. It is bloody liberating though.

I'm late 30s.

I'm much more accepting of who I am. I am introverted and used to be embarrassed about it but now I think there are positives to being introverted. I definitely care less what people think. I have recently started going out without makeup, I wouldn't have done this before but it's kind of liberating. I am a bit more confident at work. I am blonde and have an accent and am no longer treated as someone who might be asked to make the tea in meetings. My weight has increased a bit and while its annoying, I cant seem to be arsed about it whereas I would be before. I am a lot more opinionated about things, I guess maybe I stand up for myself and other people a bit more (I dont know how much of that is age and how much is awareness of the 'me too' movement).
I think I'm healthier than I was in my 20s, less booze, more nutrition.
I think the only downsides are about how you look but I think you care less.