If I had changed all the major things, my kids would not be here! So I wouldn't change stuff like: finish school, get married, buy a house, save money, grow up (1st baby age 17) etc. If there is anything I could do over, I would have relaxed more with each pregnancy, and made them baby clothes and things before they were born. I would also have kept a pregnancy journal for each one.

my mama blog
Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness. ~Seneca

I would have saved money rather than blowing it on...all the same stuff mommymash did, pretty much. Moved back to Brasil. Bought myself some furniture. Maybe waited uuntil I was 25..?

But honestly, I wouldn't change a thing

~Seriousness is a sickness; your sense of humor makes you more human, more humble.~

that i had gone to college first. saved money throughout my twenties instead of blowing it all on beer, books, cds, and weed. travelled more, tried living somewhere else for at least a little while. nothing profoud, just stuff i think about occasionally and wish i'd had the foresight to do when it was easy(er) to.

I wouldn't have been the same person if I'd done any of it differently, I think.

I DO wish that I'd waited a little longer, gotten married, bought a house, etc. BUT... If I had; I would have been bitter and angry about giving up my career or putting it on hold to be a sahm. Or, I might have felt like we had no options other than both parents working full time. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. But, I'm glad that we felt like it was important that one of us has been home with him since he was two years old. It was good for all of us. Like my mother told me, "nobody ever says on their deathbed that they wished they spent less time with the kids and more time at the office". Damned straight!

I could have traveled more, gotten more schooling in, I could have made more money or collected more pretty things.

I'm not dead. My life didn't end when I checked into the hospital. I'd like to think that the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve. I'm still going to travel, and I think I'll appreciate it more now that I'm older. I'm heading into my 30's with an elementary aged child, I can build up my career again while he's in school. I can go back to school again as he gets older, my mind is still sharp. I think I'm better off having gained this life experience beforehand.

enjoyed my free time more, I suppose. But, everything else that I want to do in life I want to do with my dd too, and future kids. i can't wait until she (they) are old enough to travel. I like that we are growing together as a family.

The only thing I really miss - aside from sleep - is slow breakfasts at a restaurant. When we go now it's so rushed and one of us end up walking around with dd.

I think I would have spent more time being a gypsie. Now my kids are going to come everywhere with me. I am never satisfied if we are not going places and exploring. I don't think I will ever be stationary. But that is what I would've done even more without kids. I kind of like that I didn't do it before kids because now they have the opprotunity as well.

Not really. I was 34 with #1 and will be 39 with #2 so I had done a lot of the things people say they want to do. I finished school, travelled and sewed a whole field of wild oats.

I'm inclined to wish I had socked more money away only because I think it gives you options but I would think that with or without kids and wouldn't do it either way. LOL.

Honestly, there is nothing you did before having children that won't present an opportunity to be done after - or that you can't make an opportunity for.

BUT, I think I understand what you are thinking and asking. And honestly, its not like after kids, there is no life of your own! Those feelings may be there in the first few years, the adjustment period, but as the kids get older I have started feeling like the things I couldn't do when they were young are def possible at some point in the future.

Talking fantasy life... I wish Hal and I would have traveled more together... all over the world. We never had the money for that, but if I could have done *anything* that would have been it. Now, we will just have to wait until the kids can be left with their Lola!

"We have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is painful. It's that women are strong."

- Laura Stavoe Harm

I don't think anything earth shattering, but it would have been better for me and for my family, I think, if I had...
* Finished college. Chose a learning path (whatever it was) and just gotten my degree! I wouldn't have had to work and continue to work at a "job that helps me pay the bills". I could've maybe found work that I loved if not a better paycheck.

* Taken more time for myself. Little and big things: a girls' weekend or WEEK, trips alone, trips with my hubby, going to the movies, reading books, etc.

* SAVED MONEY