71% of parents admit they have regrets about how they raised their children

Dk2

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According to a loose women poll

71% say they did

29% say they didn't

What are your thoughts? Do you have any regrets on this issues?
 
The only thing I regret with my daughters, is letting the eldest one have a moped at 16. That bad mistake will be with me forever.
 
i have a major regret in that i tried to pretend that my daughter didn't have an eating issue when i first got custody of her and let Mrs Dando deal with it on her own.
 
We can do all we can do but in the end our children choose what they say; how they act; and what they do, that is what makes us human - the ability to make the right or wrong morals-based decisions.
 
I attended parents night last week for my 10yo and 6yo, barely recognised the angelic children the teachers were describing, hoping this means me and mrs are doing ok at parenting as they dont have test us at home and there is no parentinh manual, we all wing it as best we can. No big regrets at this stage but would like to have a bit more money and time off to enjoy more foreign trips/London trips etc and perhaps a bigger home and garden to raise them, that's my frustrations rather than regrets but as long as they're healthy and happy material things aren't so important in the scheme of things and they'll at least appreciate working for and the value of money.
 
It's not so much a regret I have, more of a wish things could have been different.
I did not spend enough time with my 2 daughters as I would have liked. Due to financial pressures of the mortgage rate being so high, I at first took an evening job 3 nights a week and then when I was able to I took callouts for my day job instead.
I don't "regret" it as it kept a roof over our head, food on the table and clothes on our back. The only thing possibly to regret is that I got manic about callouts doing as many as were offered when the mortgage got cheaper to be able to afford holidays that I see as a non essential compared to being with my family instead.
 
Yep, but they're only slight so far. Chucker junior is 11 and we're as proud as punch of him but none of us are perfect. From my albeit limited experience, you make a call on decisions with all the help and experience you can muster and hope for the best. Every day is a learning opportunity and I still feel woefully underprepared :o Tip my hat to those of you who've been doing it for years...
 
Kids don't come with a manual and if you think you've done everything right then you are either an angel or you're deluding yourself.
The most important thing for the kids is to make sure they always know that you love them and that you let them know how proud of what they achieve, stand by them at the bad times and be there when you are needed.
My two are 26 and 23 and live hundreds of miles from me but I still call them and see how they are and am there whenever they need me. They've done alright for themselves, got good jobs, seem to be enjoying life and we still get along really well. At least that's something.
 
I think 100% of my daughter has regrets about how I raised her :o
 
My kids are almost 3 and 3 weeks so can't comment about my own regrets but am definitely keen to hear about others. Everyone always says 'cherish these moments as they go by quickly', which I understand but nobody every really offers any advice on how they got the best out of these years or what they would have done differently.
 
Mmm, a bit painful. I regret being selfish and playing way too much golf when they were very young, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The rest I'd rather not share.
 
Never had kids and I had issues with both parents, particularly my mum and we fell out big time from 18-25. Fortunately in later life I was able to spend some real quality time with my dad and my mum and reconciled our differences before cancer ravaged and took them both. I was with them both as they passed away and able to thank them for everything and that I felt blessed for everything they did and gave me
 
I don't have any regrets, are there things I could have done differently, yes possibly, but as I didn't I can't say if they would make a difference. I did chose to stop working away when the weeman was born after 5 years of it, but put us in a better place.
My oldest 13 the weeman is 6, and our other girl is 11, we have been through some very tough times and my kids still smile all the time and it melts my heart.
We are also lucky that the missus is a stay at home mummy, not everyone is this lucky, and she has done and does a great job, for that I am thankful every day.
 
We lost our first son at 22 weeks and then tried again, Jonathan is 23 now, has autism and lives at home, he was born at 28 weeks weighing 1lb 10oz, regrets? No chance.
Don't really like these polls, hindsight is a wonderful thing and prefer to look how we are today, as previously said they don't come with manuals and you can only deal with situations as they arise.
I have the fear that if I had made some different decisions in the past then the repercussions would be too hard to live with.
Love them, do your best for them and enjoy them TODAY, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow.
 
Of course In retrospect there are things I could have done better but I tried hard and am proud of the way they have turned out.

There was no instruction manual with them so you just have to do your best. The attached poem always helped me to consider how to raise them:

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, 'Speak to us of Children.'

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Khalil Gibran
 
Difficult one to answer for me, I've worked away from home for the last 10 years, Was away for his 6th birthday just past, I'll be away for my fourth Christmas in a row this year, away on the 12th and home on the 3rd.
When I'm home though I get to spend loads of time with him, drop him off / pick him up from school, we normally do something every other day after school as well, do a lot of things Dads working full time can't do.
I always try my best to be a good Dad but may not get it right all the time, no one is perfect though.
 
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