Do the ghosties of your young family ever fade?

[Notcomingbackhereagain]

I'm away with DH this week in a place where we've had many many family holidays. Our kids are in their early twenties.
I've felt bereft. Everywhere I turn there is a happy memory of our small children.
Leaving aside the fact that I am so lucky to have those lovely memories and to be on holiday this week, what I really want to know is whether these feelings will become less painful as life goes on or will we just have to stop coming here?

Do your kids want their own kids? My mum loves her grandchildren as much as her own children (she says more sometimes 🤣) and she loves holidays with us. She had similar feelings which melted a bit once she had grandchildren. I love how involved she is.

It’s up to you. When I go somewhere we had happy memories, it’s just that, a happy memory. We laugh about what we did when the kids were young. I smile, and think about the lovely young people they are now.
You can think of yourself as lucky, happy, fit enough to still enjoy life or you can weep that that time in your life has gone. Children grow, the world turns, summer turns to autumn, then winter. You can be happy or sad, your choice.

I've tried to reframe it that way but it isn't working for me.🤷
I suspect it's because things are so very difficult for us now, so the bit about feeling lucky about what we have now doesn't work. Thinking about it - that could be why memories of happier times before things went wrong are so painful.
Thanks for the replies.
Do you believe that a person can just tell themselves to be more thankful, to view things more positively? I'd love to think I could but I suspect I will always be a glass half full person.

I know what you mean @Notcomingbackhereagain
I will never return to Australia. I’d miss living there with kindergarten children in a beach house. It’s set in stone as a lovely oft visited memory.