To regret or not to regret

[Formulation123]

I would love to hear from parents with older children and past the young child stage in life.

Did you ever regret or not regret having another child?

Did you think about ttc for a second / third etc and choose to either go through with it or not.

I would love to hear some different perspectives as people always say you don’t regret having a child but I’m not sure that’s always true.

I am sorry my son is an only child and feel like he is missing out. I had reasons not to have a second though.

It’s complete nonsense to say no one regrets having a child. I have one nine year old, and have never considered another.

@NinthCircle I know right I’m not a fan when people are pregnant / considering an abortion and others say you never regret having a child, surely some people do due to circumstances.

I wish I had your close the door attitude it would be lovely to know I definitely didn’t want any more.

@starpatch do you feel at peace with the choice? We have loads of reasons not to have another that are all logical but my heart pulls for another. We can afford another and have enough space etc but I worry about pregnancy/ family Dynamics and we can provide more time and money to our current DC without another.

I had one child in 2005 and another in 2014 don't regret it for 1 second 😀

I’m in a similar place to you @Formulation123 except that I am now pregnant (although that doesn’t necessarily = baby for me). I have been all over the place about wanting a second child, and I’m still not even sure if it’s the right thing to do for our family but I know I will love another child and that we can make it work.

I have one child (age 3). I had three miscarriages before DD and a late miscarriage at 16 weeks last year. I’m 40 and I feel like I should have had my children 6-8 years ago but it took a long time to get and stay pregnant. I am tired, I don’t massively enjoy parenting toddlers, and we have pretty much no family support. It has been hard on mine and DHs relationship - much harder than infertility and miscarriage, which surprised us both. This really made us think twice about adding to our family.

I’ve been over the pros and cons so much, but for both DH and I it comes down to siblings being very important to us in our lives, especially as adults and wanting that for DD.

@Coachee congratulations on your pregnancy and I shall keep fingers crossed this one sticks 🤞

We are similar no family support and the sleepless nights nearly killed us. I think I would love another child but not a baby 🤣

Thanks. I am genuinely concerned that sleepless nights are going to kill us too. I keep trying to reassure myself that the hard parts are such a short part of our whole lives, but the reality is I feel like I’ve been tired forever. I’ve aged so much in such a short time!

@Coachee you might find a second child is easier re sleeping. I still think going from no children to one was harder than going from one to two.