I saw this thread and thought..yeah this is me. I am almost 57 divorced 2 times and never wanted children. I never should have married either. I felt pressure more so to get married than to have children.

I am an adult child of an alcoholic and I would have been a child raising children. I would not have repeated all of my mother's mistakes nor abandoned my children like my fathers did but I would have repeated some so I knew I was not the good mother type. I never had a relationship where I felt content so children would not have been an answer.

I now find that not having children brings on some bad ramifications like not having family who would care for me as I get older and see to it that I get buried. I have no family at all to see to that. I wonder who will be my executor when I die. Things like that bother me. On the other hand, I am glad that I didn't mess up my children's life with my own mental health problems. Thank God I didn't continue to drink after my high school years.

Overall, there is good and bad. The lack of family altogether is in my mind the worst case scenario. I have been investing in friendships to take the place of family. It is not ideal but it is my situation so I am coping the best way that I can.