Do You Have Any Regrets?

[Tigger&Belle]

After reading a thread about moving away from family I got to thinking. Even though I like where we live and we have no plans to move since our kids are very established and happy here, I regret moving so far away from our families. My mom lives in Oregon (my dad died 17 years ago) and my in-laws in California. It seemed like a good decision at the time (14 years ago we moved from Texas to Maryland), but as our parents age and could use our companionship and help around the house, it doesn't seem like such a wise choice.

So, how about you? Do you have any regrets in your life, large or small? Well, not too small--I mean I do regret putting hot fudge on my ice cream last night, but would hardly think of that moment of weakness as a real regret.

 

[teacher]

I understand what you are saying about being near parents. I had the opportunity to go stay in a condo in FL after Katrina; however, I could not leave my Dad and he would not go,so I stayed here. It must be very hard to be so far away from them as they age.

 

[Virgo10]

I regret not moving to Florida 10 (or more) years ago. I stayed for my mother who, amazingly, had more of a life than I did. Don't second guess yourself. Call, write, email the family but we only get one chance at life. We grow up and start families of our own and that is the natural order of things.

I did what I did and nothing can change that but, OH, if I had it to do over again.

 

[chrissyk]

I regret living in MA for as long as we did. We lived a rat race life there. Had we moved sooner, we would have been able to afford a much nicer house in FL. Now we're stuck trying to play catch-up in yet another hot housing market.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I thought of another regret, but it's a financial one as opposed to an emotional one. I regret not buying our house sooner since the house would have cost a lot less. However, I'm glad we didn't wait because we never would have been able to afford our house today--the prices have increased so much. But what I really regret is that we didn't hold onto our old house for several years. We would have made so much money on that little house. We moved into this house when our 4th child was a newborn, though, and I had so much on our plate the idea of managing the old house along with everything else we had going on was just too much for me to think about at the time. I guess it's more of a "I could kick myself in the rear end" more than a true regret.

teacher, yep, it's hard to know that they are aging, especially my mother who doesn't have anyone else.

Virgo10, both of our parents moved far from their parents, so at least they've always been understanding, my mom more than my in-laws.

 

[ericamanda01]

My theory is that if you have no regrets then you really never took any chances. So yes I have regrets, but I wouldn't change any of them for the world.

 

[Kahana-ri]

I regret being young and not fully understanding the ramifications of my poor credit card usage and payment. I got myself in so much trouble charging things that took years to repair.
I regret that I didn't know more about purchasing my first car. Boy did I get taken for a ride!
Although I moved away from my whole family and everything I knew growing up- I see it more of a trade off. I could of never had the same life opportunities back home that I do now. I happily live on the east coast with my new family.

 

[minkydog]

Yes, there are times when I wish we had not moved 400 miles away. There are probably more times when I'm glad we did I look at it this way: This country was founded by people who moved away.Many of them never went home again; some of them died in their newfound homes. Sometimes they established themselves and brought the rest of their family over. That was the story of DH & my ancestors.

I liken our life to the western pioneers, blazing a new trail in the wilderness(work with me here ) At least today I can get home in less than a day, if my mom really needs me. And I can call her up in a flash, unlike the pioneers. It doesn't take me two days to drive the wagon to the nearest store for new shoes or groceries. I can order them on the internet. My world is smaller than even my most recent ancestors could ever imagine.

So I don't really regret my decision to leave home & family. We made decisions to move based on what was best for us, the new family. We have to ry a lot harder to stay connected and we make the time to be with our extended families. Some day the shoe will be on the other foot--my children may struggle with the option of leaving or staying. i hope they will do what is right for them, not me. My choices should not be theirs. And if it means I have to fly 1000 miles to see my grandchildren, then Delta, here we come.

 

[Rozzie]

For real about the housing market, I was fumbling through the real estate section in the city's paper we used to live in (I still work over there) and saw our next door neighbors house for sale for 100k over what we sold our house for. I about fainted. I had never been so angry. It kind of scared me how angry I got. We just sold our house last December and the market in Pensacola keeps multiplying. I finally had to deal with it. but gosh 100k...

I do regret not spending more time with my grandparents. They were so loving and kind, I was too busy being a wrotten teenager the last years of their life.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

Before today, no. Now I have a regret.

 

[mudnuri]

Lately, I have started thinking that my X's idea to move to Montana way back in 1998 when we spent 3 weeks there was probably the best idea he ever had...............................almost 3000 miles from here would be great right now

I regret not going to school right after highschool

I regret not spending more time with my dad during the 2-3 years before he got sick

yeah, I'm full of guilt this weekend

Brandy

 

[halestrm]

I regret not taking the theatre scholorship I won. I let others convince there was no money in it. I regret giving up the opportunity to be a teacher also. I gave it up for the same reason.

 

[Tracey1974]

I regret not deciding on a major earlier on in college. It took me 8 years to put myself through school and I still want to be a teacher. Now I don't know if I will ever get to go back for my certification. I'm thankful for my degree though- I'm reminded of it every month when my student loan payments are due! I also regret not asking for a longer maternity leave. I'm supposed to go back tomorrow, but postponed it til the 25th. I wish I would have taken off til the beginning of the year.

 

[Planogirl]

I regret spending too much of my time helping someone else achieve their goals. I often put my own wishes on the back burner because I felt that I could get to them later but you know what? Time passes by and you might never be able to recapture the chances you had. Plus that other person's goals might just not pan out.

 

[eeyore kelly]

I regret waiting so long to go to college.

I regret not keeping up with old friends.

I regret that it took me so long to find my backbone.

 

[bicker]

I've found that having regrets is more detrimental to my happiness than having made the decisions that perhaps I "should" regret.

 

[hemispheredancer]

I regret not finishing college. I left college because I was "in love". Wrong, wrong thing to do! Now I want to go back and he is giving some resistance to this. Now I tell both kids that they ARE going to college and will get good jobs and that no education is worth giving up for a man or woman. Life is too short and uncertain to not attain the goals you want in life.

 

[Marseeya]

I have a few similar regrets that some of you have.

My biggest one is bittersweet -- I went to college for music and wanted to be a concert musician (flute), but I dropped out. I wish I would have stayed with it to see how far I could have gone. But if I'd done that I know I wouldn't have my son and I probably wouldn't have my DH and DD.

Other regrets: that I went crazy and applied for every credit card out there and racked myself up quite a debt after dropping out of college. It's been an endless source of hardship ever since.

That I let myself gain so much weight.

That we didn't move away from my home town and now we feel stuck.

That there are a few people in my life I've never gotten to say goodbye to and it's too late.

 

[WDWMom]

The only regret I have in life is not leaving the hospital AMA to be with my newborn son who was transfered to a bigger hospital. Looking back, I should have stayed with him and been with him when he died. I regret not taking any pictures of him to show his big sister and brothers to-be.

 

[AllyandJack]

I regret the years I was on birth control waiting for "the right time" to have a baby. I talked about it for over a year...next year I'll stop the pill.....

Come to find out I never needed the pill. Over a year later, I'm still trying to conceive. If I had just decided that there was no "right time" and we were financially stable and happily married NOW, I would have found out about the problems earlier and, maybe, I would have my baby (or babies) now. I wasted over a year because I wanted everything to be "perfect" and I wanted another year to "have fun".

Stupid.