Older people who are without children…

[James637]

Any older folks here 60+ who haven’t got children? How has your life panned out? Do you ever have regrets? Is it lonely?

This.

But you know of and have heard of many many child free older people who are happy so it makes no sense to hold a belief or opinion that this is not a possibility. You have made a blanket statement that in your opinion older people without children will be lonely. Yet you acknowledge all aren't. You literally contradict yourself

I was never bothered about having children but now I am in my 60's I do have regrets about it.
The way you feel at 30 or 40 may be completely different to how you feel at 60.
But if you have a good support system that is a great help - but what if you don't?
But of course there are no guarantees in life.

I'm in my 60s, I have a partner and friends and don't have children from choice. I just never wanted them. I could see, even from when I was young, what hard and often unrewarding work it was. I'm absolutely not lonely and will never be — I'm just not that sort of person. I'm never bored and never lonely. Life is great. I'm financially much better off than I would have been if I'd had to pay for children and put them through university and find house deposits. I'm not someone who's ever been mercenary or bothered about my pension etc, but things have worked out surprisingly well and I am more comfortably off than I ever dreamed I'd be.

I grow happier and happier about the fact that I don't have to worry about what kind of world and problems (climate change, the impact of AI and new tech, plastics, pollution etcetera) my children and their children will have to deal with. I do know people who've had children and thought they'd be spending their 60s and 70s being doting grandparents, only to have their children move all over the world. One friend has a daughter who has moved to be close to her mum because her marriage has broken down after the birth of two quite severely autistic children. My friend practically lives with her daughter and is expected to provide a lot of childcare. I watch that scenario playing out — the stress, the worries, the responsibility — and I'm just deeply grateful that it's not me. I get that for some people the desire for children is overwhelming. But it's not the same for everyone.