To ask what’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

[Thispinks]

Some positive thoughts! It’s easy for us to think about what we’ve done wrong or could have done differently. But we’ve made some great decisions in our lives too! What are they? x

Best decision i ever made was to have both my children young.
Now still in my 30s im child free responsibility free.
And started to travel a lot.

Going against my incredibly controlling parents to keep seeing my then boyfriend (now husband) when they decided they didn’t like him any more. 20 odd years later and we’re married with a child and a business and we’re so happy. He’s 100% the best decision I ever made and everything good in my life comes from building it with him. I have no contact with my parents now after finally finding the courage to stop them hurting me and I couldn’t be more grateful for that flash of teenage rebellion!

My abusive ex got himself hired in my office. I worked for a fancy tech company.

I quit and retrained in an entirely different field, despite people saying this would be "letting him win".

Fast forward a few years and I love my job and have a wonderful family. Best decision ever.

To get my cat. I love her beyond words and she’s such a wonderful little companion. Every day I thank myself for getting that little beastie.

Staying single and childfree.

Starting my business.

Buying my flat.

I'm very content!

Leaving abusive exDP. Never thought I could mange it but I did.

What do you do if I may ask?

Controversial, but having the affair with the married man who left his wife for me. We've been together over a decade and marrying this year. Neither of us have been happier in our lives. We are each others soulmate.

Less controversial, listening to my teachers when they said I was clever and could go to university as a child in a very deprived area of Glasgow with no aspiration or hope for the future other than shop work like generations of my family....I'm now a consultant oncologist.

Changing my mind about having children, I was adamant I didn't want them and had asked to be sterilised, luckily I changed my mind and now have two amazing daughters who I adore.
I just love being a Mum.

Most recent decision was to commit to 6 months on the weight loss jab Wegovy, after years of struggling with my weight I'm 4 stone lighter and feel so much better for it.

I'm 50 next year and feel better and more content than I ever have.

The choice to have a baby etc obviously was a good one but I would say making a very rushed decision to adopt a dog we hadn’t even seen. He’s literally an angel and every day I imagine how different things would be if I’d scrolled on past the facebook appeal I saw

Took a job teaching English in Japan aged 22. Changed my life and one of the best years my life, too.

to go no contact with my mother

Me too, although I was Christian already, but didn’t have a church to attend.
Mine would be plucking up the courage to write to the lovely lady vicar after my beloved gran’s funeral to thank her for her kindness and care. She took me under her wing, invited me to meet her for a walk and coffee and drew me in. I am now an active member of the church family and we are now firm friends. She has supported me through grief like nobody else has. And the other month I proudly watched her be licensed as priest in charge of our parish.
Gran would be proud. She was her teacher in the 80s!

We’ve been together since high school, and were equally virginal when we started dating. We were not sexually inactive, but held off on penis-in-vagina for nearly ten years. (We didn’t get married until after I’d finished law school.) Probably helped that we didn’t live together.

We’re “cafeteria Catholics” (do they have that term in the UK?); we go to church and the kids go to Catholic school, but we disagree with doctrine about gay/bi stuff and contraception/sterilization. (He had a vasectomy after second baby/second bout of postpartum depression.) It wasn’t so much religiously motivated as practically motivated. I just was not in a position to risk having a baby.

Edit: Yeah, he was okay with it. He knew he wasn’t in a good position to be a dad.

Every time I've left it job, something much better has come up. If I could change one thing, I'd have moved around even more. Milk those employers!

Having DD. It wasn’t until my late 30s I wanted to be a mum. Sadly we had a miscarriage first. I fell pregnant a while after that and was a mum at 40. My little family is everything to me.

This is the most affirming response so far.
Thank you, @Deadringer for doing something that few of us could, even if in theory, we think we would. A hard, hard job, opening your home and heart to those at their most vulnerable.
Wishing you every happiness and luck for the rest of your life

To have less fun in my 20s and work v V hard. At the time I despaired as all my friends partied and then married early etc

But it meant I'd reached a really senior level before I married DH at 35 and had my little ones and now late 40s we are mortgage free, good pension and have stepped right down the ladder at work to be at home more.

Doesn't suit everyone but has suited me this way round . Love this thread thanks for starting

Retiring from teaching and taking a waaaay less well paid p/t role together with my tiny early pension. Don’t have as much money as many mates, but I feel so good!

Strangely moving to the town where we live, in the rural area I grew up in and swore I’d never come back to, I have no family here now.
I suggested here as it was closer to DSC and had a train station. I was pregnant when we moved and I made friends at baby group who have become some of my closest people over the last 10 years, I have a choir, a community and beautiful surroundings.
I feel so lucky that a practical decision made mainly for someone else’s benefit has paid such dividends.

Having a cheap as poss wedding (register office, 2 guests, takeaway meal as the reception) and paying off the mortgage two months before interest rates went all over the place.

Going vegan 💚

You sound unspeakably smug and judgemental

To have started writing fiction

Having my son. He has fragile x syndrome and autism and yes sometimes hes hard work but he s amazing and i wouldnt change him for the world.

Going to specialised therapy. Best thing i ever did. After 24 weeks im a changed person.