I would not have been so hasty in career choices. I worked at a small firm that grew very very large after I left. While I got a “good” job after that, not as good as my peers who stayed and worked for the longer term opportunity instead of going for a short term salary increase. Oh well.
I regret the decisions of other people, does that count as well ?
Dated more, played around more, not been so serious. Gone after the “woulda coulda shoulda” guy.
Buying my new car that’s a lemon. Buying rentals, which made money but cost far more in emotional, marital, and physical labor. In general I’ve kept bad things in my life too long when they should’ve been dumped–both people and objects.
I love reading everyone’s responses.
Gone to a different college, taken a different career path.
^So saying you shouldn’t buy cars at all? 
Buses are good!
There are 2 “ones that got away.” Always wished that they didn’t. With my husband, we should have had the third kid. Maybe a fourth. If I’d focused a little more in college, I would have had different job and career opportunities.
I wish that I had another child with my husband. We have a blended family and there is a 5, 7 and 10 year age difference between the oldest to youngest. Youngest is close with two of her sisters , but I think it would have been nice to have one closer to her age . I got my tubes tied when she was born. I regret all real estate we have purchased with the exception of a piece of land we bought with money my grandmother gave me. It was a gamble that paid off , although it took years to be able to build on it because of wildlife protection issues .
Built the custom house we were planning to build for several years, instead of going with a new build in a development.
Luckily, we are young and are still planning to build the house in the next 5-10 years. The mortgage just adds to the logistical challenge…
I’m happy we had two kiddos–we love them dearly and a third kid (which H initially wanted) would have really been tough with the chronic health issues our family has been dealing with for way too long. I am very happy to have a lot of wonderful nieces and nephews that I hope to get to know better.
Wish I had listened to my gut more and not been afraid. Now, when making decisions, I ask myself, “What would I do if I weren’t afraid?”
" There are 2 “ones that got away.” Always wished that they didn’t "
I had two of those as well. One of them always seemed to pop up and contact me and want to get together. It happened right before I got married to my first husband and it gave me some doubts . He sent me a letter and told me he would be in the area and wanted to see me. I did answer him back , and told him that I was engaged and that was the end of that….until I got separated years later and I got in touch with him. We lived in different states , but he did come to visit me. That put any doubt to rest .
The other one , I learned passed away on my 50th birthday. He was a troubled young man that became an alcoholic and that is what ultimately took his life
I had a couple of pivotal things in my life that I potentially could have changed. At 19, I fell in love with the person who became my wife (and is still my wife), and that while it brought a lot of love, also in some ways cost me, without going into brutal details it kind of got me enmeshed in things I shouldn’t have been at that age, in a sense having to care for her, and it stopped me from finding out things about myself. Likewise, at a later time, there was a path I explored that likely was more about who I was, but ended up abandoning it because of the impact it would have had on my family.
The only thing is, had I done something different at 19, it is likely I wouldn’t have my son at all, and had I done later on what I was thinking of, it likely would have changed the path of his life and may very well have ruined our relationship…so while I have regrets,those regrets are more than tempered from seeing my son become the person he is and would have meant more than likely losing the only person I have ever loved as my partner/life mate, both of which would not have happened had I chosen those paths not taken.
I wish I had been a tad less pragmatic and had gone along with some of the adventures my husband suggested. I wonder now how enriching it would have been for us and the kids to live overseas for a bit.
I wish we had bought that house that our landlady offered to sell us for $70,000 back in 1992. It’s worth a heck of a lot more now and D2 and her friends could rent it from us. We were just ignorant and afraid of the whole process.
I too am enjoying this thread. So many things come to mind, other than the ones I wrote in the first entry, as I read your responses.
Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to go back and live our lives with the “other choice” or make the change we wish we could? Of course it can’t be done. But it sounds like a good tv program. Haha
Not wasted so much high school getting wasted.
Been a better boyfriend in college.
Not married my wife.
Tried harder to connect with my dad.
Abandoned my masters program in English and started nearly from scratch in geology.
Taken what seemed like a risky job with a web design start-up in 1995.
I wouldn’t have gained as much weight as I have. After babies I was able to lose quite a bit and then it creeped back up on me. Now I’m older and not as healthy as I should be.
I left a start up 15 years ago because I needed monthly cashflow to support my family. I was one of very few founders of the company. It was sold for half a billion recently. On the other hand, I am not sure what I would have done with that much money.
I would have become a librarian instead of an accountant. Then again, if I hadn’t hated my job I wouldn’t have left it and become a stay-at-home mom.
Definitely would have had more than two kids. I have a lot of regrets about that, but we made the decision when I was working and I just couldn’t imagine having another baby and working full-time. If only I had known I was going to stop working and be home with the kids!
This isn’t necessarily a “regret” but I always said that in addition to my natural born children, I would love to adopt a child. I wish that we would have really made that happen. I’d almost still do it now!