The Independent Woman: Do We Need a Do-Over?
By GalTime .com. Posted on .
Now, maybe this is a small group of professional women feeling the angst of being over 35 and unmarried and without kids, but it’s an issue that deserves a conversation. My friend lamented, “Marcus, I’m 40 years old. I’m not married. I don’t have kids. And I WANTED all those things, but it may be too late now. Most of the decent guys are already married and even if I met someone TONIGHT, fell in love, got married, and had a baby (if I can still even HAVE a child) it’ll still be another two years.”
She went on to say that at a young age she decided that she would pursue a career and get settled professionally before settling down to start a family. But throughout the course of her life, career consumed her because that’s what she was always advised as a young girl: marriage and family should come after you’ve established yourself.
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In hindsight, my friend was wishing that she had given more weight to that life goal. Her feeling was that if she had to do it all over again, she’d have put more stock in long-term relationships and perhaps gotten married and even had those kids. In her mind, even if the marriage hadn’t worked out she’d still have had that experience and the children to show for it.
I found her reasoning interesting, but I found her belief that her pursuit of independence had actually been an obstacle to her long-term happiness... absolutely fascinating.
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Where do you stand? After all your success, are you feeling like you’d go back and make different choices if you could?
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