Childhood fantasy vs real life did it turn out like you wanted?

[momtoadiva]

I mean as little girls or boys did you picture your future life? Do you have regrets?
I personally dreamed of the white picket fence 2.5 national average kids, a dog and a great education that lead to that CEO job.
Reality is I have a great dbf, 2 great kids, 3 dogs, great home, didn't finish college, have a medi'ogar job & suffered a divorce. I'm still happy with my life even though it wasn't the childhood fantasy. My two biggest regrets I didn't stay in the military I would of been retired by now grrr. Of course my divorce even though it wasn't my choice. It didn't only hurt me and the kids it hurt my parents.
Care to share you hopes, dreams come true and disappointments in they way your life actually turned out?

[kittykatstrong]

My life is not so bad.

I think when I was younger I had planned on helping people more. I thought I would be a vet or a nurse. I never thought that when I started my job 9 years ago that I would still be there.

I thought I would never have kids. I have two DD who were both unexpected. But I love aton.

I thought I would be married by age 30 and I am to a guy I meet right out of highschool.

I can't complain right now. We are a happy family.

[monkeymia]

All I wanted to do when I was little was travel the world and be a social worker.

Now I am happy to be a SAHM and married. Id still love to travel but I hate social work (due to working in that area and now know its not for me) but I'd like to have 2 more kids and buy a house.

[missmanny]

My life didn't really turn out the way that I had planned when I finished high school, but in many ways I am glad that it didn't.

I think that the things that I wanted then, now wouldn't have made me happy and I truely believe that you are the sum of your experiences and that the things that have happened to me have shaped me into the person I am.

also I have to think that If I hadn't taken the path that I did I wouldn't have my job or my man or the other relationships in my life.

All in all things turned out well for me even though not what I had planned.

[emily_hope]

I planned on marrying, having six children and being a SAHM. I did marry my high school sweetheart and we had 2 wonderful DDs. We divorced and like momtoadiva it was not my choice. My two DDs, my parents, myself and other family and friends were hurt by this turn of events. I did remarry a very wonderful man who loves me and loves my DDs like they were his own. He already had a DS and DD. So... that put my up to 4 children. Never got to the six I had dreamed of having, but, now my DStepson has 3 little girls and my DStepdaughter has 4 boys... so they kind of made up for it for me. LOL!! I never got to be a SAHM either. I am a Cosmetologist and I work in a small salon. Sometimes I wish I didn't work, but I do have a great job. I like my life. And I believe, like missmanny, that the things that I have gone through in my life have made me what I am today... and I like me.

[TheRootedNomad]

I wonder.. is it's wise to reply to this thread when I'm REALLY MIFFED at DH....Here goes though.

I expected to be either a mounted police officer in Harlem or something demanding respect like a lawyer or a colledge professor. I planned on getting my degree from U of Louisville (even though I lived in NY). I would be married by 25 (with that degree...a masters at least) with a couple of kids, a house, a couple of dogs and some horses. I'd get to stay home with my kids when they were little, my family would not drive me nuts anymore because I would be out on my own and my husband would think I was WONDERFUL and cherish me.

Reality
I am now too old to be on the job....
I finally wrapped up my Associates when I was 31 (still hopeing fro someday on the masters degree though)
I HATE my current middle management, my opinion doesn't matter position.
I've had positions that allowed me to spend more time with my kids than most working moms but I didn't get to stay home.
My family drives me crazy all the time....and my parents through emotional attachement still have some manner of control over my life. (like politely listening to whatever rant they are on when if it were anyone else I'd tell them to take a leap, or whatever)
My DH DOES NOT make me feel cherished or appreciated on any kind of routine basis. I don't know if he thinks I'm wonderful or not ,,,, currently I don't think he's wonderful. Most days I can chalk it up to his personality and mine (the whole he thinks he is being wonderful and I can't even tell ne's doing anything but BEING) but I know that, that's him. Other days I feel special. Then there are days like yesterday where he thinks everything is great and I'd like to hit him over the head with a skillet (like in a cartoon) and he'll see the light. .... Ah well ... maybe 15 years together makes reality different than the new copper pot.

[loveless82]

Hiya,

WOW!!! From as far as I can remember I always want to live far (and I mean far) from where I grew up and make movies, like writing or direct films, and have at least 6 kids. That didn't happen. I don't regret not go left when I went right. As for my life now it not what I want, but it a good life..
I live about 10miles from where I grew up and about 3miles from my parents. I have not work a real job since I was 17, due to move out at 18 and then dropped out of school ( I do have a GED) at 19 I had my son, at 23 I married my husband and the father of my son also at 23 my dad was diagnosis with a brain tumor so I then would be come his home nurse and driver to every where for the next 2 1/2 yrs. Which should bring me up to the right age of 25yrs. Which I just turn this pass X-mas. So that is my fairlytale..lol...the only thing I would add to this life is more kids.


more later
Jenn



wife to
Mommy to JJ

[contessa20]

My life is nothing at all like I had thought it would be, but then it could be a whole lot worse.

What I had hoped would happen was; I would go to college and then become a teacher somewhere on the mission field. At some point thereafter I would become a stay-at-home wife and mom with my missionary husband, have a small home and moderate amount of land to raise all of our food (with the exception of meat... ick), adopt a child or two (I wanted a HUGE family), homeschool my children and volunteer at a local school or orphanage in my free time.

In reality I graduated high school at 17, was accepted to college, got a job in the summer between high school and college, met a guy who asked me to marry him at said job, ditched college before I even got there, got married, bought a house in a neighborhood with 1/2 an acre, had a kid 10 months later (who I ADORE, of course!!!), have been a SAHM ever since, cannot homeschool because DH disagrees with the very idea of it and volunteer at his school one day a week helping children learn to read.

It's nowhere near what I envisioned for myself and I would still REALLY love to have that life but I can't really complain. My husband works his butt off so that I can be a SAHM, my son goes to a decent public school where he has had all incredible teachers and I'm able to volunteer there on a weekly basis, we have a nice home in a wonderful neighborhood and enough land that I can at least have a decent sized garden (even IF I can't have a milk cow and laying hens ).

[jamie79]

Well I wanted to be a famous actress or a nun and I am neither. I didnt want kids and I have two whom I adore and wouldnt trade for anything. I hated moving so what do I do? I marry a man in the military!!! Oh the contradictions of life.

[Jayne]

I think that I had some "lofty"aspirations when I was young...I wanted to be an archaeologist and go to Egypt to study the pyramids..I also wanted to own and show dogs, and work with animals in the zoo ....
I guess it just wasn't meant to be....I can't say I am really "content" right now....I have areas of my life that I need to work on and demons from the past to deal with..so , no, It isn't what I wanted it to be...

[carlitasway]

When I was a little little girl I wanted to be everything under the sun. When I was in high school I wanted to be a writer and move to NYC. I thought I'd be a single woman for the rest of my life. I didn't want to get married. I didn't want to have kids. I wanted to grow old with 5 cats. Fastforward to today I am a SAHM with 2 kids, one is really allergic to cats so I will never get to have one. I am married and I also watch another little girl sometimes. I want to adopt children when my dh graduates in a few years and we know where we are going to settle.

[Lady_V]

I am not a Queen who has a medical practice and a pony!!!

[quiltergirl]

Yes, I am pretty much living my childhood fantasy -- at least one of them. I wanted to be an artist. But it happened in a kind of strange way with lots and lots of detours -- but at 50 I am finally an artist and a published author (another childhood dream). That's all that really matters to me. Makes all the bad stuff that happened along the way not so bad. It also makes a difference that my dh loves being married to an artist.

[frugalfarmwife]

I am not a Queen who has a medical practice and a pony!!!

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS THANK YOU FOR THE GIGGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But you can come play with my ponies any time you want, and cows and chickens, and.

Wow, you know, I never really was one to look at the future, drove my parents NUTS with it, in fact even told them I wanted to be a mortitian just to get them off my back, lol!!

And I still haven't really grown up so can't really answer that part of it.

Never had the maternal instinct, children just really weren't my thing. Did always want to do something with animals and landed right in the middle of 82 acres with more animals than I can count Always had a passion for horses (much to my mothers dismay) and have my herd now.

I took a long and drawn out path to get here, and did follow the fun along the way, wouldn't trade one thing that's happened (good and bad) because they're all part of the reason I'm where I am today, on the FUNNY FARM

kj

[mommy4ever]

I remember wanting to have a large family. I never knew what "job" i wanted, it changed alot. Dr. teacher, scientist, lawyer, engineer. I always wanted to be published, still do, but I no longer write, I should take it up again.

Today I have 4 kids, and still don't know what "job" I want to have. I'm a SAHM, and truthfully, don't want to have a job. Once my youngest is in school we'll consider it, but I think continueing to build my own business will be the best way for me to go. I've been running a home childcare for most of my married life, and it just doesn't appeal to me to answer to the "boss" that'll be 10 to 15 years younger than me. So We keep plugging along.

Is it the life I remember wanting? Kinda..lol.

DD10 wants to be an artist/illustrator or a teacher and a mom. DD4 wants' to be a unicorn, doens't want to grow up or have kids. DD8 doesn't have a clue but wants to be a mom(sounds familiar here). DS13 wants to go into trades and decide what his life path will be but wants to be a dad and have his wife be a SAHM, if that isn't possible he wants me to babysit..lol.