Those over 40 with no childen....what in life do you look foward to?

Everything!!! I don’t have kids so I can focus my time and energy on helping my elders, my community, fostering my inner child, learning new things.

If you want to focus on kids, there are plenty of kids that need and crave attention, you just need to find them. Check with the Boys/Girls club, volunteer to tutor at the Library, ask at your Church for volunteer programs. There is plenty to do an lots of people will appreciate it so much. And you will get a lot out of it!

I don’t exactly qualify (since I have kids), but when I was 40 I used to say that I was so tired of being cold all the time that I was looking forward to menopause so I’d be warm once in a while.

I have no interest in focusing on kids, it’s just that having kids can really put meaning into your life.

I myself don’t need to have kids to have meaning in my life, @anniereborn. I guess I never really had a strong mothering instinct.

I don’t have children, I am 45, and I have a lot of regrets. I always thought I would have children, but health problems and fertility struggles wreaked havoc on that idea. Still, I fault myself for not having more perservance. I feel like a baby would be a new joy my husband and I could experience, but I do really really wish it had happened before I was 40.

I look forward to continued good times with my husband. Travel. Getting back in touch with girlfriends who finally have their kids getting off to college and on their own. If my husband died or left me, God forbid, I would be quite lonely I think. My life revolves around him a lot.

I also want to start a business. Do something that I did, just me, an accomplishment of some sort. I think some of it has to do with never having kids, having not pursued that in the way I think i should have, maybe I can do it in some other part of my life.

I’ve been thoroughly preoccupied with seeking my adult life and have watched reality flip and turn inside-out on me a few times, including most significantly these first six months of my 40th year. It’s like I’m wet behind the ears all over again, and I am looking forward to growing in the wisdom that this latest path allows. Already, I am grateful for the relief it has brought in the understanding that there’s a layer deeper and more encompassing than what I thought I knew to be the foundation of truth.

I also only paid off my student loans in July, and while I immediately treated myself to a two-week overseas vacation courtesy of MasterCard, I am looking forward to a life free from that obligation and impingement on my identity.

Even without kids, my life the last few years has grown more and more isolated. I am alone a lot, but I am rarely lonely. If I wanted more company, I’m sure I could take steps to have it. If I wanted the company of children, I could teach. I do have a young niece and nephew and they are adorable, but I don’t have too much traction in their lives relative to others who take care of them.

Most of my relatives, though are boomers, so yeah, I’m anticipating a run of geriatric episodes. As a cohort, they’ve disproportionately colored my life up until this point, though, so what’s new.

I’m looking forward to snowboarding and learning to live with the flow of life, empty of expectations and in the present.

I’m also dropping significant weight with very little effort (again since July), so I’m looking forward to having a thinner body.

@anniereborn Be careful if you’re around that much sickness, because it can turn into depression. :)

@KNOWITALL I already have Depressive disorders. So there is that. And I can’t really help being around the family that I love

All of the things that gave my life meaning when I was 20 with no kids.

More time without kids. You have options good parents will never have.

When I was 20, I felt the future was mine to find. I was looking forward to getting married. Someday having kids. Eventually owning our own home. I was in college working towards my degree and future career. So, I can’t go by any of that anymore.

So far, I’m extremely happy that I didn’t have children. I was raised by bad parents, and I fear that I would have perpetuated the cycle. Also, I’ve never really enjoyed kids or felt any urge to be a mother.

If I live to be very old and end up all alone, I might regret my lack of children and grandchildren. For now, however, I’m really pleased with my situation.

Think about it like this. You have only lived half of your life, probably even less. And you spend almost half of your 40ish years as a child. You have more life to come than has passed. You are a new born babe with a lifetime yet to live. You might not have the myopia of the young, but you have the experience of age. Who’s to say which is better?

Well, I had kids. They’re grown. My baby is 26. His sister is 28, 4 kids, no husband. My oldest is 35. If I could, I would look forward to not having my phone ring 37 times a day with calls from Middle Sister with updates, but mostly to hear my voice because she needs a lot of reassurance and a shoulder to cry on.

BUT…I’m looking forward to my grandkid’s milestones. They range from Going-To- Be- Born- On- Monday to 18 years of age. Got 9 of the suckers! How did this happen?

And does my post have anything to do with anything? Blame it on the Beer. Husband is out of town and I’m alone. House is so quiet. I used to beg for such quietness. Now it happens too often.

My partner is over 40. We have no kids and we have freedom to look forward to. We can do what we like, and when we like. We can have sex when we want and as loud as we want it, that fir me, beats it all.

You can be old and having kids can make no difference. There are tons of people that are old, alone, and have no contact with their kids. Kids don’t guarantee anything in middle life or old age. You can be just as alone, with or without kids. A full life in itself is what a person needs. I have two teenagers that eat all my food, that I love having around. I have a sister with a 22 year old daughter and a 4 year old grandson that gave up everything to move in with them to take care of their son, and they kicked her out. Don’t ever depend on your kids, for anything.