Have you had a Sliding Doors moment in your life?

[slidingdoorsmoments]

Sliding Doors is quite an old film now, but I think most people know what this phrase means. For those that don't know the film, a woman comes home early, to find her partner with another woman. This is the catalyst for her to leave him, and live alternative life with someone else. A life that would never existed, had she not discovered her Partner cheating.

I think I've had a few of these moments in my life. The biggest ones being :

My friend telling me that my husband was cheating on me : I left him and now I am married to someone else.

Me sitting down one night, with a glass of wine, and looking at houses on Right Move, that were by the sea : saw a house, loved it, showed DH, viewed it the next day (only 40 mins away) and bought it. Had no intentions of moving until we saw the house. Now been here 11 years and still in love with it. Made lots of friends here and it's a lovely little town.

I'm sure life is filled with lots of mini sliding doors moments, but these two really stand out for me as big ones, because if my friend had never had the courage to tell me that my first H was cheating, I would never have left him, and I would never have met my lovely DH. And, if I hadn't been idly scrolling on Right Move that night, we would probably still be living at our old house.

Not an AIBU, posted here for traffic.

There was a thread on this 18th June. Also one before in 2023 ...

Ah. Never saw those!

I'm sure life is filled with lots of mini sliding doors moments,

Sliding doors moments are all a bit nonsense because your comment above is the crux of it. The fact is every moment is a sliding door moment that you don't even know about.

You stay 10 minutes longer sitting in a cafe because you can't be bothered to move. If you'd left 10 minutes earlier, you'd have bumped into Mr Perfect For You who you used to be a school with/work with and have reconnected. You don't even know because you were on Path A so have no idea of Path B at all.

because if my friend had never had the courage to tell me that my first H was cheating, I would never have left him, and I would never have met my lovely DH

This is just your perception but it's probably completely wrong. You probably would have found out he was cheating at some point or he'd have left you. That woudl have freed you up to meet someone else. For all you know, if the timing was different you could have met someone even better suited to you than your DH.

Every moment of every day is a sliding doors moment in reality. Human nature is to make the best of a bad job and to view the Bad Thing as a Good Thing to make themselves feel better.

Like Thank God I didn't get into Cambridge University because I was so Happy at Durham University. In fact, Cambridge would probably have been just as good if not better but its a human need to convince yourself.

Thank God I didn't get that promotion in the company where I was really happy that I desperately wanted because it lead me to apply to my new company where I am paid more. In fact, you'd probably have been happier being paid more on your promotion that you didn't get in your old place where you really liked it but its a human need to convince yourself.

In your case, you are Thank God my friend told me he was cheating but in fact you'd have been better off not marrying the first one in the first place at all.

We all like to fool ourselves. I do it. You do it. We all do it in order to live deludedly happily.

I went to find some change in my husbands pocket - he said it was there and to get it - as I did he jumped up to stop me - but I had already pulled out the cinema tickets for sliding doors... there were two tickets, and then the penny dropped. I realised why he'd brought new clothes, new aftershave and had been out with the lads a few too many times.

I was pregnant and we divorced

Yes. I made the wrong decision and it cost me 20 years of happiness. I'm still making up for it.

Trust your gut people x

Ah who cares? I personally didn’t see those threads you have mentioned.

I loved reading your post OP.

Not sure why another poster said it's been done before? Came across a bit dismissive.

I've never thought about sliding doors moments. You're talking about the really significant ones aren't you. Not the everyday ones. I never wanted a second child. Went around to a friends house when I couldn't be arsed and saw her new baby. Woke up the next morning with an overwhelming desire to have a second baby. Was pregnant 4 weeks later. Another one was just before Christmas 2023. Woke up one morning and decided that after nearly 20 years of teaching that I wasn't going back. I never did and it's been the best decision ever. Mine tend to be really really strong gut feelings that I get that I can't move past.

Made my day this thanks!!! 😂

@blastedtea I expect your post will be deleted but I must say I love the expression rude witch which made me laugh. I know I shouldn't because it is so offensively female but there's something funny about it. It maybe that rude is so minor and witch so offensive so together they are comedy.

Yes, when I was young, I was offered a job with full training & accommodation in an industry that I did some PT work in.(this was PT work on top of my existing FT job)

I decided to stay in my original FT job & industry, which turned out well.

I was only saying to someone the other day, I wonder how my life would have turned out, if I had chosen the other option.

Has this not been done to death?

On whim bored one afternoon emailed an ex colleague to she how she was. She mentioned her company was recruiting for a position I was qualified in and to send my cv in. I got the job. Often wonder what I'd be doing now if I hadn't emailed her that afternoon.

Yea we had a post near identical to this only a week ago 😂😂😂

So? I haven’t seen either… and look at the number of threads that come up on the same topic daily! Can you imagine if someone responded to a thread about cheating spouse with … there was a thread on this yesterday 😅

My husband decided to call an ambulance one morning when I felt an bit odd, the same feeling I’d had numerous times before but GPs could not work out what it was and had suggested I took antacids. Not really sure why we agreed to call that morning, there was no real reason other than a desire for someone to listen to me telling them something wasn’t right. Turns out I was having a massive heart attack and I had my life saved. I would not have survived had we not called 999, I often think back and wonder what the sequence of events would have been that day!

Yep me too

Met DW because she missed a flight and got put on mine instead. We lived on 2 separate continents but were going to the same European city the same weekend.
If she had made it on her original flight, we’d never have meet. 20 years and 2 kids later…

I'm still laughing at being called ' rude witch'. I'm adopting this saying, it's classic . It's Like it's meant to be offensive but just isn't and I don't know why!

Perhaps this is my sliding doors moment ...

Looking at the thread it doesn't look like that was for you but for funinthesun. Plus it's more likely she meant witch with a b.

Hindsight is a weird one. I could track back every decision that has led to my current life status quo, to the death of my father. As in, his death led to a decision to move house, to change job, which then meant I joined a gym round the corner from the new job, which is where I met my current DP and father of my child. If he hadn't died, my life might be completely different now.

I think the key to a happy life is really to just not wallow in bad situations - say yes to opportunities, seek out change and growth, aim to surround yourself with like minded people, and eventually you find yourself in a happy situation and you realise that none of it would have happened were it not for the dark times.

Haha notme76 you are bang on.

What is your 'Sliding Doors' moment? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/5099688-what-is-your-sliding-doors-moment

Rude witch is a compliment in my book!