When I see women my age who have made the right decisions that enable them to stay at home with their kids I cry a little inside. And sometimes outside, too.
My father (at the age of 95) just became a great-father, via my brother’s daughter becoming a mother, and my wife’s brother (who’s younger than me) has three grandchildren. However, my four children show no signs of doing anything in this direction: only one is married (which I know isn’t essential to the process these days, but it does help), and she seems more interested in starting her career then traveling around the world.
None of my four kids will reproduce for me either. Shoot, some kids I used to babysit are grandparents! My husband is a grandpa and great-grandpa, but it’s not the same.
Men my age (45)? Family.
I envy the men who have a loving wife and children and somewhere to come home to every night. I’ve gotten most of my act together; I’m out of debt; I’ve been at the same company for 18 years; I have hobbies and outside interests; I’m going to the gym and getting in better shape; I’m always learning things.
Yet I don’t have a home; I just have a place to sleep.
I envy the guys with a happy marriage & kids. But I’ve also see quite a few unhappy marriages, so I’m glad I’ve managed to dodge a few bullets along the way and not make any hasty decisions based on a desire for a family.
I’m a bit embarassed at 34 to still be renting instead of buying a house, especially since I have a decent career going. That may change within the year, though.
I’ve never even had a GF for more than a week, and few for even that long. Most people my age (44) have been married at least once and have kids. Not only do
I envy that, but it presents practical problems. (Since I don’t want to be nobody’s stepdad, this means dating women my own age is not even a realistic option for me; if a woman my age has never been married or reproduced, she must be either really repulsive in some way, or even more fucked-up than I am.)
Same here. Exactly the same here.
Three years ago may have been a different story…
Enormous penises and ample disposable income.
The fact that most women my age seem to be married.
Do I want to be married for the sake of being married? No, I can do that pretty easily (as in, I turned someone down last year). But I envy women my age who seem to have found that combo of friend-lover that they’ve settled down with and have plans with for a long-term future. It doesn’t really help that my desire to have kids is going up.
I have a great life (money, amazing family, career), and I focus on that quite a bit. But I won’t lie and say it isn’t a void in my life.
It isn’t a seething jealous envy as much as it is a regret as to why it doesn’t seem to have worked out for me (yet).
Yep. Except change “Three” to “One.”
So what you’ve missed out on is the wonderful experience of a messy divorce.
That’s just not so, on two levels. For one, it’s possible to date someone with kids and not become a stepfather. Not every date has to lead to marriage and fatherhood. For another, there are some wonderful, sane, independent, beautiful women our age who never felt the need to be validated by marriage. And thirdly, who says you have to date someone your own age?
Indeed not, but the possibility it might lead there seems generally to be assumed unless expressly ruled out. And a guy my age can’t very well market himself on terms of, “Look, I’m just trying to get laid here.”
Not IME.
Ya got phone numbers?
Women of younger ages. Not to mention certain court orders. 
Boobs. I envy boobs. Only because, for a short few years, I had them. Pregnancy and breastfeeding for almost four consecutive years gave me the extra boost that filled out tops so much better. And now they’re gone again. While I’m glad they snapped back pretty close to their pre-pregnancy shape, I do miss the breastfeeding knockers (but not their tendency to leak, or the constant time constraints inherent to breastfeeding).
But I’m not about to get implants, nor do I envision getting pregnant in the near future, so I’ve come to terms with breast envy.
BrainGlutton, I’d like you to meet anu-la1979. I’ll leave you two kids alone to talk…
Yes, but I’m not sharing.
I have a great boyfriend, actually. And I only date investment bankers/management consultants, anyway.
Then I guess a lawyer would be way too exciting for you.
I’m also envious that most guys – well, most middle-class American guys – my age have at least some financial security. My life has taken a lot of odd twists and turns, and while I’ve thereby paid my Abnormality Dues many times over, all I’ve got to my name materially is a paid-up car, three graduate degrees and an assload* of debt.
*More than a buttload, less than a shitload.,
barf
Being a jack of many trades, I envy all masters of one of them who’re my age, especially if they share my gender, though I know it shouldn’t matter. I’m not on the bottom rung of the ladder, but I always feel like an RPG character that got created with abilities across the board, to find out that at level 25 all the focused character builds are kicking my ass.
I don’t want to be anyone else, I know people’s lives are seldom all they’re presented as, and I don’t really even regret my choices. I’m just frustrated that I’ve taken the scenic route so I’m not further along right now.
Occasionally I envy women who are good at something that makes them lots of money. (Real estate, law, engineering, etc.)
The things I am good at will never make me wealthy. I didn’t pick my talents or my interests; I would make an awful lawyer, the sciences never appealed so I can’t see myself as an engineer, etc., etc…
I am a very good photographer, and that is what I would like to pursue full-time, but no matter how good I am I will never be rich. Comfortable, yes. Is that enough? Sure. I’m not particularly greedy.
But is there an occasional twinge of envy when I see a woman who is making all kinds of money doing something she’s good at? Yes. I think she’s lucky.
I am lucky in many ways myself; a lot of the things people envy in this thread are things I possess. (Outgoing, good social skills, lovable SO, slender, full head of hair, etc.)
But we always want what we don’t have, apparently. :smack: