Do you regret not having children ?

[Nofoolfornoone]

YABU- no i don’t regret not having children
YANBU- yes I regret not having children

I'm only just 30 so I probably don't have the life experience of some of you, but I can certainly say that I LOVE my life without kids and can't imagine anything changing in that department, so in 10 years time I expect I shall be saying "No regrets!"

@rebelleny I can tell you as somebody who has worked in hospices and with the elderly that having children is no guarantee somebody will be mourned. And I don’t think it’s appropriate to be prescriptive about other people’s experience of grief. You have no idea about other people’s lives and relationships.

I'm 30. I've never wanted children and luckily my partner doesn't want them either.

I don't regret it - I have never felt as though I would want to be a mum and those feelings have never changed from being a young girl.

I'm a parent. I can't imagine regretting being childfree (by choice and without duress) especially within the age ranges 30s-70s.
But, having worked with persons in their 80s/90s, I do wonder if there is regret at this stage of their lives. I assume, based on the generation, they are childless (not by choice) rather than childfree but this won't be the case for all.

I really don’t think that’s something people without children are bothered about rebel.

I’m not child free by choice and there are plenty of things I am sad about. Regret is the wrong word because I had no say whether I had kids or not. I am very sad about it.

@rebel I don’t think I was rude to point out I strongly disagree with you. People could have a life partner, a lifelong friend, a sibling, any number of lives that they will leave a giant hole in when they go. And that’s assuming their own parents are dead when they die. I’m sorry if I came across as terse, but I think it’s a little rude to come on to a thread full of people without children and talk about how your death will make a greater impact than theirs. It almost came across as goady in fact.

Of ours people spouses and other family and friends will grieve over and miss them but it really isn’t the same.

How do you know? You can’t quantify grief like that. I expect my dad to grieve the loss of my mum far more than I will.

I have tried to have children since the age of 25. I'm now 44. I've been diagnosed with unexplained infertility and endured endless rounds of ivf since I was 34. It has caused my marriage to break down.

I'm now with a new partner and we both desperately wanted to be parents when we got together. We have had 3 rounds of ivf - all failed. We're discussing another round with a clinic abroad, but tbh this has taken over my life and I feel like I lost my 30s to this. I'm not sure I can carry on and lose my 40s to this dream.

The experience has been so painful and no-one can appreciate how someone childless not by choice feels. I've been told, "Perhaps it's for the best", "Have you thought about adoption", "Just relax and it'll happen" among many, many other totally inappropriate things. My advice to anyone who knows of someone who is infertile is please say nothing - just listen.

Thankfully, I'm starting to appreciate all of the things childless people enjoy - long lie ins, plenty of date nights, last minute city breaks and it's helping me realise that there is more to life. I'm thinking it maybe time to stop wanting and start living. So would I regret not having a child? It would make me sad at times, but what I think I would regret most is losing another decade of my life to more ivf treatment.

I'm late 30s and very happily child free. I've never wanted children, never felt broody. I don't dislike them but to me there's just too much drudgery and self-sacrifice involved and it's just not for me. I read it on threads here every day "it's relentless, it's exhausting, it's thankless... " and I see it from friends, family and colleagues who have children. I know there are obviously positives too, but they're still not things that really appeal to me, or that outweigh the negatives.

I don't feel like I need to have a kid to make me a better person yadda yadda, I like me the way I am. I love being a vet and find it endlessly worthwhile, I love my dogs, my DP, my family and my friends, and above all I love my freedom and being able to do what I want when I want.

I've always been very nomadic and have chronically itchy feet. I've travelled, lived and worked all over the world and I was able to up and relocate myself and my dogs from the UK to Canada in less than 2 months 18 months ago; it's been a non-stop adventure and I've never been happier. I like being able to do crazy shit like that 😄

I travel an obscene amount, always have since I was old enough to do so and I expect I always will. I've seen more places and done more things than most people but I always want more. I guess my intense desire for adventure and new experiences is my version of broodiness.