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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think there will always be a sadness there

67 replies

stamping · 02/02/2020 11:10

No children.

I haven’t totally given up hope but it’s a possibility it won’t ever happen.

Does the sadness ever go?

OP posts:
Liverbird77 · 03/02/2020 09:14

I had my first at 41 and due to give birth in July, when I'll have just turned 43. We got pregnant very quickly both times. Don't give up hope!

AriadnesFilament · 03/02/2020 09:29

I don’t think that’s helpful @LiverBird

AriadnesFilament · 03/02/2020 09:31

Actually, I think it’s stunningly insensitive

Spartak · 03/02/2020 10:34

@Liverbird - unless you can suggest where there is a horny man full of sperm that might actually want to impregnate me, there really is no hope!

Liverbird77 · 03/02/2020 10:35

Right, ok, I wasn't trying to be insensitive. I was trying to say that it is possible to have children into your 40s.
I am really sorry if I offended the OP

wrongsideofhistorymyarse · 03/02/2020 10:41

Can we please, as a society, get to a point where we don't say stuff like this when people are talking about not being able to have children? It might be very well meant but it's rarely the right response. Adoption and fostering will have been considered already by 99% of people voicing these feelings and they definitely aren't right for everyone for very good reasons.

This, with bells on.

OP, I went through fertility tests in 2010. Nothing was found but I've never had a pregnancy. My life is happy. Once in a while I get a pang but it passes.

Flowers
PurpleDaisies · 03/02/2020 11:13

Totally agree about the adoption question. I will add stop sharing miracle stories. They don’t give hope. Your situation is totally irrelevant to mine. It’s just hugely insensitive.

Pilot12 · 03/02/2020 11:16

Why do you think you're not suitable for adoption?

PatellarTendonitis · 03/02/2020 12:13

Maybe she doesn't want to adopt, Pilot, and that's why she's unsuitable. Is it not enough she said she isn't suitable to it Hmm? FFS, I really feel for people like the OP between the miracle anecdotes and the adoption probing, it's like rubbing salt in the wounds. Sad

AriadnesFilament · 03/02/2020 12:38

Good grief.

OP is under no obligation to explain the circumstances as to why she might be asking the question in her OP (but some of you are doing a damned good job of guessing and assuming), or to explain what steps she has taken until now and in what depth to have children, or might take in the future. That isn’t what she asked and none of it is relevant to what she did ask. Not only is it not relevant, it’s unhelpful, insensitive, and/or hurtful.

OP, I hope I haven’t spoken out of turn. I apologise if I have, but some of these replies and questions are just 😱. You have no need to explain yourself.

There’s lots of really useful in here from people who have been where you are, or know people who have.

It’s grief essentially. Grieving the future and the life you thought you’d have at the same time as trying to find and build and appreciate the life you will have instead. I can’t relate to it in this specific circumstance, but in a related one, still to do with children, and all I can tell you from my experience is that over time the sharpness of the pain dulls, the acute constant-ness of it fades gradually, and is replaced by a low-level hum of what could have that’s always there in the background that’s usually drowned out by the other things you build and love around you. In the quiet times you might hear and feel it more. At vulnerable times you might see something or someone that reminds you of what could have been and it’ll be a fresh, sharp thing again for a fleeting second or a bit longer. The hum will oscillate depending on circumstances, but to some degree the hum will always be there. There will always be reminders of what could have been and ‘what ifs’. That way madness lies, but it’s inevitable at first. Eventually you might listen to the hum and smile and look around you and see what you’ve made of your life instead and be pleased with the circumstances life gave you because you wouldn’t have this if things had worked out as planned.

AriadnesFilament · 03/02/2020 12:42

All this to say, it’s not easy, and as with all grieving it changes you as a person into someone you didn’t think you’d have to be.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be the end, is I think what I’m trying to say.

🤷🏻‍♀️ Just my view. Others will disagree.

PatellarTendonitis · 03/02/2020 13:04

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Lardlizard · 03/02/2020 13:09

Op I hope your pain eases in time xxxx

Liverbird77 · 03/02/2020 13:11

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PatellarTendonitis · 03/02/2020 13:16

Reported.

Liverbird77 · 03/02/2020 13:26

Ditto

PatellarTendonitis · 03/02/2020 13:28

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