50 People Share If They Regret Their Decision On Having Kids Or Being Childfree

Never. I knew I did not have the maternal instinct. I am an only child and my parents always talked to me like an adult. Never baby talk. I was always around adults. I started Kindergarten and I thought the other kids were stupid and out of control. When I turned 38, I had a long conversation with my mom about having a baby. She said it is my life and she wasn’t going to pressure me. I had that maternal instinct for about 15 minutes in my life……………………I ended up with a puppy. Perfect for me. Besides, I carry an Epi Pen. When I’m around children I break out in hives. I’m soooooo allergic to them. Misbehaved children in stores, I would rather throat punch the parent for not doing there job to teach basic manners. UGH….I’m so glad I didn’t have rugrats. NO REGRETS!!!!

Unfortunatelly, yes.

I have a wonderful husband and we planned to have our two wonderful children. But somehow already in the first weeks of my first pregnancy I started feeling depressed. Since then (over 6 years now) I am fighting depression (with medication, therapy, etc.) and can’t succeed. I feel like I have ruined not only my own but the lives of everybody around me. These two precious girls will certainly not be mentaly healthy grown ups after experiencing a mother like me.

I was perfectly happy before I had children and now I can’t find motivation to live in these circumstances.

I wish there was some education on parenthood and possible side effects. I wish parents would speak openly about the difficulties of beeing parents.

It seems to me that the whole world is cultivating the big lie that “children are the ultimative happiness”. Otherwise, if parents were honest with their own kids about the fact how difficult it was to raise them, they would possibly lose their chance to become grandparents.

My husband and I decided to have children partially because of the pressure from our families. Sadly, none of those who put pressure on us is available to help in difficult moments.

Yes, I indeed believe, a few people would be better off if I hadn’t have children.

NOPE. I don’t have children and I purposefully chose not to have them and I’m happy and contented that I don’t have the issues I see parents having to contend with. It all mostly stems from the fact that I’m an INFJ introvert who is very fulfilled and complete because of the dominant left cerebral hemisphere I have.

That and also certain spiritual beliefs I hold dear to me is also why I don’t regret not having kids. To each his/her own.

Everyone must do what is right for them in the long term. At the end of it all, whether one has children or not, it doesn’t matter since we all end up dead anyway. It’s just a matter of when it’ll happen for us all.

I couldn’t have kids. We’d talked about adopting but my husband was a workaholic and I had a number of health issues…and honestly not a big desire to be a mom. So we didn’t. I don’t regret it. But I have a lot of kids in my life. I’m my nieces and nephews and friends’ kids favorite aunt. I see or at least talk to most of them often. So my life has a lot of great younger people in it.

As the years have gone by and my children have become adults, I have begun to regret having kids. For one thing, the expense has been tremendous. But that aside, mental illness runs in my family. Depression, psychopathy, and other assorted psychological ills loom large in my family, psrticularly on my mother's side. I myself have been diagnosed as bipolar (cyclothymia), and my brother has chronic depression, as did my mother, who even considered having electroshock therapy towards the end of her life.

My youngest daughter claims she has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. My son almost certainly has some kind of mental illness, either bipolar or borderline personality disorder. He rages constantly, is completely unpredictable in his moods which can range from almost euphoric to really miserable, and he can be very verbally abusive. My oldest daughter, who is now almost 40, seems to be doing the best. She holds down a good job, has married a very kind and hard-working man, and has a nice home. But she is chronically depressed, has almost no self-confidence, and was on adderall for years for central auditory processing deficit until her doctor refused to continue prescribing it for her.

So, yes, I often regret having children. Not that I don't love them; I do. But they seem to be so unhappy, and that weighs heavily on my conscience.

I do not regret not having kids, not even for a second.

I hear about how much of a blessing they are and how fun it is to see the world open up through their eyes and I call bullshit.

Having kids is mentally and physically exhausting, but no parent will own up to it in public. Shame on them.

Do you know what I’ve been able to do by not having kids? Yep, whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want. I’m not saying my life is perfect by any means, But what a nightmare for any kids I would have had knowing I would resent the situation until the day I died.

My mother walked out on my brothers and I when I was three. I stood there and watched her walk out the door with another man, and never saw her again. My dad was in Vietnam at the time, and we had to wait for Red Cross to notify him and for him to get a hardship discharge to come get us. I vowed to myself that I would never to that to any children I had.

I met the one when I worked as a traveling sideshow performer. He was a ride jock. It was love at first sight, and we had thirty wonderful years together. I gave birth to my one and only child, a girl, and she became the center of my world. She still is, thirty six years later. Unfortunately, my one passed from cancer in 2014, but I still have my beautiful girl, who herself is married with a son. I would not give up any part of my life for anything; my daughter has been the light to guide me through some of my darkest hours, and I couldn’t ask for a better friend.

No lying: I absolutely adore my daughter, and I have never regretted having her, even though she was an accident, and I didn't want children.

Something inside me flipped on when she was born. I've never known love like this. I've never been so content. And I've never known anyone like her.

As a child, she was this beautiful, sweet, innocent little being who needed me. As an adult, she's a gentle, graceful, intelligent, caring, absolutely gorgeous woman. I did nothing to deserve her, and my life is enriched by her.

Yes. It's hard to raise a child, and it was very hard to let her go, but my life is better for it.

Yes and no. I was raped but had to keep the child as my parents did not believe me. And I feared at the time of losing their love IF I had an abortion.

I raised her the best I could on very little. Never found a man that would love me with a child.

And thou I regret HOW I became pregnant and how I had to live to raise her. She now has a Daughter I love with all my heart.

I guess I’m in the minority here. I never had kids nor really wanted them. I thought about it, sure, I think most people do. But I just never had the feeling my life wouldn’t be complete without them, and my partner of 25 years feels the same way. Sometimes I wish I had had a daughter, because I would raise her so much differently than how I was raised (I’m female). But that’s just speculation on my part.

Yes, I regret it as one of the worst mistakes of my life. Their mother is a mental case and they grew up to be carbon copies of their mother. That’s 4 young adults now that are dysfunctional, arrogant and incredibly selfish. They can’t keep friends or jobs. To this day I wish I never had kids.

When we got pregnant, my wife was 40 and I was 50. The birth went terribly sideways, because our son aspirated meconium during a very long and difficult labor. It should have been a C-section but our OB seemed very disconnected about the whole thing. So, when he was born, his lungs shredded and collapsed, his heart stopped twice and lost O2 to his brain. Flight for life took him to Children’s where they cooled his brain for three days. The subsequent MRI was very concerning and showed a number of areas of damage and he was given an HIE diagnosis. We spent the better part of two years caring for him and he had several therapists, occupational and physical. He had a lot of challenges at the beginning and was not a happy baby. However, at 20 months, we gathered with all of his therapists for a review. A speech therapist came because he was saying words backwards. She had a stack of diagnostic materials to go over with him, but he just went over to her with one of his books and started explaining it to her (he’s very social) and she looked up and said she thought he knew around 2,000 words! Now, he’s a very intelligent 11 year old.

My wife was also injured in the birth and that is permanent. She will have a life of pain and disability.

Despite all of that, we are so delighted to have him in our lives. He’s funny, brilliant, compassionate, loving, creative, etc. He has some challenges, such as ADHD and mild autism, but we can’t imagine life without him. Everyone who meets him thinks he’s an extraordinary kid.

However, part of me really regrets having a kid because of the state of the world, especially climate change and our political refusal to do anything about it. I’m concerned about the rise of reality denialism. He will never have the ability to just focus on the things I took for granted for my entire life. We are in the midst of global species collapse and this baking summer may be the coolest for the rest of our lives. I feel terrible about bringing him into this situation, especially when so many people not only deny these things are happening but seem determined to make it all worse.

So, we’ll carry on. I have an extraordinary family with an abundance of love and a great life, full of art, music, literature, travel, and helping people in dire situations (I’m an immigration attorney, as well as a performing musician), etc. But for how long?

I don't regret my kids. I regret allowing myself to have children with a loser. It's the biggest regret I have. I made a shitty choice for a partner, and my kids missed out on a good relationship with a real father. And I did it alone. But the kids, the were never the problem. My lack of love for myself was. I has no buisness messing around with him he had no goals nothing. I still feel so embarrassed and ashamed of my choices.

No.

If I had the ability to live my life over, making any choices I want, I would not make a single choice which would jeopardize having exactly the kids I have now, just as they have turned out. I love my kids, I love being a dad, I love being part of a family.

Got two of them now. 10 and 8 year old. They have absolutely shortened my lifespan. So I had some regrets but I found out I really like having them around. So things got better and I would hate not having them in my life now.

I don’t regret having my kids. I do, however, regret that I believed I had people who would be there, even with the distance.
When I got pregnant with my oldest child, I was swamped with well wishers and people telling me that they would be here for me.
My step-mom and my “momma” said they would take time off and travel the 600 miles to be with me around when I had her so I wasn’t alone and wouldn’t have to embark on motherhood blind… but that’s exactly what happened.
I had an induction date scheduled about a week before my due date for 3 days past my due date. I called my moms, I told them about the situation and both moms informed me that they wouldn’t be there (they didn’t meet my daughter until she was 5 months old). It was just my husband and I. And it’s always just been my husband and I since.

I don’t regret my children, I love them fiercely but I regret not going into this journey prepared to have no support system. I still, even almost 11 years later, still have people who dare utter the words that they are here if I need them, I don’t believe it anymore. I struggle with resenting those that do have a support system, I struggle with jealousy. It’s a difficult thing to live with. So yeah, I don’t regret my kids.

Very much so.

I was 17 in 1979 when I got unexpectedly pregnant and was totally unprepared for what I was getting myself into. Long story short, I was a selfish, idiot teenager and didn’t give my children any kind of good start in life. My husband only married me so the kids could have his name, then he left. I raised them while on welfare, and I know I never gave them the attention and care that they needed.

I love my children, don’t get me wrong, but I should NOT have had them when I did. I ended up giving custody of my youngest three to my mother, then their father, but got them back when he passed away. I had a fourth before getting my tubes tied (best decision ever!) and I did keep him, and he’s turned out well. The other three, not so much. No surprise there.

It took me YEARS to figure out why I kept getting pregnant when I insisted on using condoms. My late ex-husband had to have been poking holes in them. It never once occurred to me at the time. I was such an idiot.

If I could have had my children in my late 20s, when I began to really mature as I remember it, I wouldn’t regret it at all and would have given them such a better start in life and raised them with so much more attention and concern for their future. As it is, all I can do now is help them as much as they’ll let me. I certainly understand why they don’t want much to do with me.

I have very mixed feelings about it. I wish my parents hadn’t had me. How’s that for a twist? They don’t regret it but I do. At least they’d never admit to me they regret it. Would you tell your kid that?

People have children for mostly selfish reasons. Evidenced by the fact that some who live amid disease and squalor who can’t feed themselves and who also have ‘homes’ in environments that are an absolute hazard for children continue having them. Why? (That is a question here on Quora)

I love my daughter, of course. I’d take a bullet for her without hesitation. But I’ve also passed-on some truly detrimental DNA to her. Mental illness and cancer runs in my family. I have survived cancer once and live in fear of it returning. I have mental problems and depression ruins my life daily. These things I stupidly decided to chance passing on to my child.

People don’t think about the possible quality of life for their future children when they’re in the bedroom satisfying their own selfish needs. Or even when they choose to have a child - they mostly ignore what is right outside waiting for their child to face growing up.

Yes very much. I love my children. They were all the result of planned and wanted pregnancies.

When I caught my narcissistic evil ex cheating? Actually caught caught him I was pregnant with our forth. I

He and and his weathy and politically powerful family decided that I must be destroyed

This began29 years of custody disputes, accusations of drug used (again me of course) his family kidnappi g children, his family refusing to return children , physical abuse directed at me as well as the children .He would have a literal tantrum and beat the children to get back at me.

His family involved Child protective services in four counties. There were multiple custody evaluation supervised exchanges and several attempts to have our utilities turned off.

I basically had to teach myself to practice family law because I could feed my kids or pay an attorney.

I wouldn't say I was totally innocent I called CPS a time or two myself like the time Stevie our only male child returned home with second and third degree burns

This all went on until the youngest was 18.

The end results one child driven crazy he has been In and out.of institutions and has made several suicide attempts

One child refuses to talk to either of us. One moved to the other side of the country, she and I are still close. The last one the youngests ls functional if you overlooke the fact she is a habitual liar who learned that she can get whatever she wants if she makes up the right story

I love my children but if I could do it over I would never have brought them into the world to have been in the middle of what their father and his family pulled them Into

I wouldn't be here without my kids. We all have mental health issues ( depression, ptsd) but we still make sure we find something to laugh about and be grateful about every day. When each of us are alone at night, the tears come and the anxiety, however because we made a promise to talk openly and to try and laugh every day, we, re still here. They are my life and even with our problems, I wouldn't change a thing about them. They struggle so have empathy for others, they're incredibly kind and have somehow kept their amazing sense of humour. I am the luckiest mum on the planet ( well that's what my kids said!)