Has life turned out the way you planned it?

[MrsArchieTheInventor]

Aged 8 I wanted to be an actress.

Aged 14 I didn't know what I wanted to be but I knew that I wanted to go to university, get a degree and do something on the back of that.

Aged 22, having left school at 16 to join the big wide world of work, I left said work and went back to college to do a science Access course with the intention of being a scientist. Didn't exactly work out as it turns out I'm not very good at chemistry, a rather essential part of science.

Continued working life life as a temp office worker, had two children in the meantime, got married to ther dad, now have a house, 8 year old Mondeo and I'm about to start a new part time job that is paid minimally but enables me to work around my family, i.e. actually spend some quality time with them instead of being too knackered of a nighttime to do anything other than tea, bath and bed.

It's not that I'm discontent with life per se, it's just that I thought I would have done things in a different order, like forged a career first, then got married, then had children, continuing to somewhere around where I am now.

Does life ever work out the way you planned/intended?

No life hasn't worked out the way I thought it would. Up until the age of 16 I was focussed and hard working and was on course to get into university and follow my dream to be a teacher.
The mum committed suicide, I fell apart and ended up running away for a year, getting pregnant and wallowing for a good few years. I am now married to a lovely man with 2 more DC, but no he isn't the love of my life. I have got very good at pretending that I am happy. #~But I want more out of life. I know I am capable of more. I often think of the film "Sliding Doors" and think what might have been if only I had made different choices.
What makes me sad is that in the future I would be devastated if my DC felt the same about their life the way I do about my life.

Yes and no.

I always wanted to get married and have kids. Have done that. However, I always thought I'd get married aged about 29 and have kids about 31+. I'm 30, have been married 7 yrs and have 2 kids. I haven't worked in 6 yrs since becoming a sahm - I find that quite hard to accept especially since all my friends from Uni have high flying careers.
Things are pretty much as expected though tbh I didn't think we'd be as skint as we are!!