Do people actually regret not having children? Possibly not

[Bettie]

20. We all make decisions, large and small

some we're happy with, some we aren't.

Some days, we think we've done well and some days, we regret each and every decision we've ever made.

And we all make different ones.

We thought we had made a terrible decision with our third child...he was a surprise anyway, but he didn't sleep more than 4 hours at a stretch for his first 18 months. That was hard, but we love being his parents and he is a happy kid.

I love being a mom, DH loves being a dad...most of the time.

I know parents who love being parents and parents who don't.

I know childfree people who are really happy with that and some who wish they had chosen differently.

We're not all the same and yes, some are happy, some aren't. Most are some mix of happy and wistful about other paths they might have taken. "What if" is a powerful thing. Who knows what might have happened if we did X or Y?

7% of parents say they wouldn't do it...for most things, I think you could find 7% of people who said "well, that didn't turn out the way I thought it would".

This reminds me of the continual articles about how single women are happy....and married women are not. Some are, some aren't.

And we'll never know if the other path might have been better, because we've already made our decisions.