General Chat

Difficult question TS.

I sometimes think I should have gone to university after school and gone for a "proper" career. Instead after A Levels I did a secretarial course and then got a degree with the Open University in my 40s.

BUT, and it's a big But, if I had been at uni at age 19 I wouldn't have met my OH and my whole life would have been different.

So, an occasional regret but would I change what I've got now? Nah!

I don't think I would change anything really.

My life has had it's ups and downs, the ups gave me strength for the downs, the downs always had some good come out of them.

I am who I am today because of my past, I am happy and blessed with a loving family, so all in all I am happy to be me :-D

I have had a very good life and I wouldn't change anything in it. I suppose I could wish my Mum was not so 'victorian' and was more demonstrative/affectionate. And not so straight laced. However, I know she loved both us girls as did my dad, she just didn't show it so much when I was a child. Following on from that and having seen how children are brought up now (excluding those who rule the roost but meaning how calm my Grand daughter in law is with her little one). I look back and I know I was not good with mine, I copied my parents, I was quite strict and expected them to 'obey'. Which they mostly did. And to be fair, they have never complained since and we are very close. Just in my head I wish I had done better.

However as far as my personal life goes, I could not wish for a better OH, 54 years in August and still love him to bits. :-)

Tenerife, I've tried to find him on Facebook, but his name's too common :-(

As for work - I'm one of the unfortunates who thought they were retiring at 60 - only to be told 2 years ago, that it's 66 :-P

Hi TS
I do indeed! I received your photo and I'll be sending you one later - similar theme
Nice here today so hoping to have the afternoon out! xx

Maggie.. Any idea where Jon is now? Is it too late? Lol :-D
It's sad when work makes you ill you have to spend so much of your life there.

JustGinnie, if we could have done things differently I bet there would still have been things we may have changed given the chance.

Solrosen..sometimes I wish I hadn't started my family tree! As you and I share a big branch you will know what I mean. Did you get the photo I added to a pm? xx

I would never have started using permanent hair dye :-( :-(

I need my roots doing far too often these days :-D :-D :-D

I think that we all look back and think 'what if ' but if we did change the past we would most likely still look back and 'what if ' .

Hopefully we do the best we can at the time.

Would my life have been better if I hadn't listened to my mother so much, I don't know and never will . My life so far has been very good and I plan to be here at lot longer. :-D :-D

Thought long and hard about this.
Two things I may have done differently.
1) Perhaps instead of stay8ing with my (then) boyfriend, now ex, I should have gone out with Jon, when asked. His dad owned quite a few big hotels in Southern Ireland.
2) Should have stopped working for Hampshire County Council the first time they screwed me over job-wise. Then, perhaps I wouldn't be as ill as I am now :-|

Shirley.. You did what you thought best for your daughter at the time. When you look at her now you know you did a good job bringing her up

Wisechild.. I'm sorry that things have changed for you after marrying, it's not what we expect to happen. I hope you manage to get some time away from him.

I too am satisfied with my life, not with some of the things I went through to get where I am now but with the way I handled all the obstacles and rubbish I had to get past on the way here.

All over again?

I would completely ignore any "advice" given to me by my parents :-(

feel the same as you Shirley - think I was a bit hard at times - I love him to bits, he's my life and I'd die for him, but I just couldn't cope

wouldn´t have married OH no2 at the age of 63 after 20 years of being single.
We were happy enough living together, but for some reason, since we married, it has all gone pear shaped.

Nothing !!

Met my hubby at 18 and married at 20'.he is my best friend and we have been married now for 56 plus years

Maybe I would like to have been less hard on our daughter, everything to me then was black and white so she was expected to be perfect . She loves me to bits but does say she was a bit frightened of me at times as she didnt want to incur my verbals .that hurts now cos no way would I want to have hurt or demeaned her

Andy Mum.. There were so many things that were just not mentioned in the '50's and as I said earlier it was unheard of to just live with someone that you weren't married to.

Kay.. I sometimes think. "What if" maybe it's a good job we can't turn the clock back.

Ann.. I'm sorry you had such a struggle to get your baby and it's understandable you were extra protective. Clearly you never got any support from your in laws either. I hope you had other family around you.

all in all I'm pretty satisfied too - think I could have been a better mother - was too wound up and tense - lost three babies and when I eventually manged to get one I was over protective and a bag of nerves - not a good frame of mind

No, as I feel sure anything done differently,as possibly through making mistakes or was they? then I wouldnt be where I am today.

I'm very satisfied with my life.

I would have kept my parents married, at least until we were all adult.

In the 1950's divorce was NEVER mentioned and my sister and I were forbidden from telling anyone, or talking about it.

At a school reunion I was asked about my "odd" family set-up and told my friends the truth!! Just 40 years too late.

That, I agree with Lynda you seem to be able to cope with all that gets thrown at you.


Anybody got any changes they would make that don't include changing their partner!

Just to add to my post, "I think if you are loved, especially as a child, and you can give love, that's you sorted for life"

It sounds like I meant if you're lucky enough to experience that, nothing bad happens, what I meant was if whoopsies hits the fan, you can cope better :-D

Edit ...Susan wiv, the beginning is a very good place to start :-D