I'm going to be left on the shelf arent I?

[Findersnotkeepers]

Well it only took me 4 years to figure out but... me and my partner don't want the same things and we will need to break up.

I'm 35 and just can't help but feel like this is a really weird age to be going back to being single. I dont have any kids. I dont particularly want any. I'm not young, but nor am I old enough to be part of the "freshly divorced" clan.

I just feel like I've wasted time and can understand why people end up sticking with less fulfilling relationships as time goes on. I felt like a young woman when I started this relationship. Now I feel old and middle aged for some reason. I dont know what happened. It was a warm, solid relationship but it was also somehow lacklustre. It's hard to describe. Somehow, it gave me comfort and security but it also took something from me - maybe a kind of energy I once had, a youthfulness.

Does anyone know what I mean?

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. However, peeps putting posts with different points of view can be helpful.

We have the option to do as we want.

Get married, don't, have kids with a partner, have them alone.

The choices are all there for the taking.

They really aren’t.

The only one that’s there for the taking is to be alone. The rest relies on there being someone you want to marry who also wants to marry you, someone you want to have kids with who also wants to have kids with you, your financial situation in both situations, your financial situation if you want to have kids alone. It’s really not all just sitting there to be picked.

It is an awkward age IMHO. And so many men you will meet will be awful or have baggage or both. Or be married or in a relationship. It would be a lot more complicated if you wanted children and were on a time limit to meet somebody suitable. Still there are some very positive stories on here so maybe you should take the plunge. You don't want to be saying in 15 or 20 years I wish I had.