Do you miss your child/ren when they were little?

[Blueskies3]

I hear lots of people say when they have adult children that they miss their children from when they are little. They would leave their present day to go back. A friend also wants to have a third baby to stay in the little kids bubble for longer.

For those that have grown children do you feel like this?

Mine's only 8 and i miss her baby and toddler years, would love a time machine to keep going back

Nope. But I have a lovely calm nearly 13yo. I like watching videos and seeing pics of him that Google throws up every now and then, but I don´t want to relive those days, no. It`s sweet to see how he was, equally lovely seeing him growing up.

Ask me again when he´s 16 😄

Mine’s 14 and I really miss all the things that come with having a little one, Christmas, Halloween, birthday parties. I was heartbroken when she went to secondary school and changed overnight. I went through all the feelings and processed how I felt about my role as a mum now she’s older. We’re in a really good place now…

Aaaand I’m pregnant with my second and super excited to do it all again. I’m glad I went though the emotions though and didn’t just get panic pregnant. I thought long and hard about why I wanted another child. Being a mum can be so complicated in terms of our identities

Yes.

Love DC as they are now, too. And obviously am incredibly grateful to see them growing up. But I miss them when they were small and squidgy and their brains were developing in such exciting ways.

Yes I do my DS is in his thirties now. I would go back in a heartbeat to when he was little. I was a single parent, left an abusive husband and on the bones of my arse financially. It wasn’t always easy. Even with all of that we were so happy and optimistic. My parents were still alive and absolutely adored my son, We didn’t have much materially but we were always out and about going for walks or to free activities. I just feel old now and with nothing much to look forward to anymore.

wrong thread

Yes . Dd1 is like a different person now to what she was as a small child.

I have nostalgia moments, such as when I was at the library recently and saw this toddler with a big board book plop down on their mother's lap and I remember my kids at that age doing the same thing or I was at the store last week and saw things they would have really liked when they were little, but I no longer have children in that age group.

That said, I don't miss them being little and have no desire for them to be small again. There are challenges with adult children and teenagers, but I'll gladly take mine now compared to when they were babies or toddlers where we'd have daily issues around a child who just couldn't be soothed with no idea why, my third had a lot of medical issues when small that she's thankfully mostly grown out of, and their needs were a lot more intense as was the judgements around everything. Everything feels more balanced now.

And really, having my 20 year old sending me pictures from his latest uni trip out on a ship and updating the family during our weekly video chats & gaming sessions or my 17 year old coming to me for advice on her apprenticeship & ranting about her work day or even my 15 year old who recently was quite poorly and took a doze on my shoulder & said I make a great pillow - it's the best feeling for me. They're great people and we've developed these great relationships & I look forward to how those will continue.

Sometimes I do. I wouldn’t want the day in day out grind of being climbed on and stuff but I guess that’s why having grandchildren might be more fun -you get the good bits in small doses.

Mine are 20 and 18. No, I don't particularly miss when they were little. We had lots of fab times but we're still having lots of fab times now they are adults too. We're still very close as a family, despite them both being away at uni, and I'm in touch with both of them every day. I love seeing the fabulous young people they have turned into and am excited to see how they and their lives develop in the future.

Mine are only 8 and 10 but I’d already do anything to go back to those days!
I actually said this exact thing to DH today when we were in the local soft play / activity centre!

Yes I miss my cuddly, affectionate toddler boy. He's 18 now and he's embracing his independence, as he should! He's been at university for 5 weeks so at this point in time I think the transition is most obvious.

I love my teen, and I love my adult son. We still do plenty, together.
But, I miss my babies, my toddlers, my preschoolers, my annoying junior school kids.
I used to have little ones. They don't exist, any more, and, yes, I miss them.

What a wonderful childhood you provided despite adversity.

I'm in the baby and toddler years and love it. It's going by so quickly that I know I'll be lamenting its passing on and off as they grow.

I miss having a baby and my youngest is only 4- can’t imagine how much I’ll miss the primary school age when teens.

I've got a nearly 3 year old and miss the baby days and the early toddler days and even the days six months ago... I love him completely now, he's the best, but seeing how much he's learning and growing is so strange. I'm simultaneously incredibly proud of him, and sad that he'll never be this small again.

He is the best thing I have ever done.

Mine are only 7, and 4, but I already miss them as babies! I don't miss the sleep deprivation and relentlessness of it though. I would just like to go back in time, give them a cuddle, then come back! 😂 God help me when they're teens, I'm savouring every moment, because they're at such a nice age atm!

Dc are 8 and 10 and already miss the younger years.

I also think there's a good dose of nostalgia for other elements of my life when they were small - both my parents were alive and well, which they're not now, and i had no health problems. So I miss the whole era. I think the attraction of their younger years is that I was younger too.

My DC are in their twenties now, I have never wanted to go back to baby or young child stage. I honestly love seeing them grow up and become their own people. Sometimes I have a nostalgic moment and I occasionally flick theough photos of when they were younger, but no hankering to go back there.

Kind of, but I don't miss the lifestyle of having babies and young kids if that makes sense. We didn't/don't have family help and it was just relentless and I never had sleep or a moment to myself. I still have a good relationship with my almost teenager which helps. I miss my youngest being little more because he seems so much less happy now (mostly due to dyslexia and struggling at school).

I recall thinking when I had a young child that I knew I'd miss the baby snuggles when my DC was older and wouldn't it be ideal if you could just swap the odd day here and there with parenting them as a teenager - a nice break in the relentlessness of parenting a toddler (and probably a lie-in, a proper conversation, seeing all the things they could now do), whilst your older self enjoyed reliving going to the park and baby group but on a full night's sleep and with the novelty factor of not having had to 'be a puppy' the five days before as well.

No because I found them such hard work when they were little. Always worrying about safety. As soon as they got roughly secondary school age I started to enjoy them. They're now in 20s and left home and I miss them terribly!

Yes and no. I would love to step back into those days of having small children- I loved it so much and they were so gorgeous. But I love them as young adults too and also very much aware that when they’re even older I’ll look back at now in the same way, so try to live in the moment. Wonderful memories, wonderful present.

Weirdly I miss making my second one's bottles of milk up, and feeding him, his little face! He stopped crying instantly when he could hear it getting made, he still loves his milk now at almost 5!

Yes and no. I miss things like their little chubby hands, constant cuddles, cute outings farm parks etc. However when DTs were small I was often wishing the day away for my own sanity. I also really loved things like Halloween, FC, the whole christmas thing, we still do stuff but it's not the same.

I love seeing them grow but was think the other day that if they go to uni I only have three years left with them at home.