Feel like everyone has kids and I'm the only one left behind

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When I say Everyone I don't actually mean everybody but I mean the people who I went to school and college with, I had a lady who came into my work place to buy something with her daughter and she was someone I recognised from school but didn't really know her and it just ended up triggering thoughts of feeling left behind and that everyone my age or a bit younger has got kids and that I'm the ''only one'' who has barely changed and that they are ''more grown up'' than me. Again this sounds absurd but that's how it feels right now. I seem to feel like I can never get rid of these thoughts and that if I see someone else again I recognise from school or college days with kids it will just end up re-igniting the same feelings again.

I don't remember having any of these self imposing, pressurising feelings running around in my head when people probably started having kids in their late teens/early 20s during sixth form or college or uni or during the mid and late 20s when they may have started having kids then, so why now ?

Last edited by chris1989 on 15 Oct 2023, 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm 52 and haven't got kids. It doesn't bother me..

Wanting to have kids because everyone else has them is actually the BEST reason to have them Having one right away will stop those "fear of missing out" feelings.

Its a good reason to have them if you really want them and seeing other people having them motivates them but is it a good reason to have them because society ''expects'' you to by a certain age or that you ''should'' have them regardless of really wanting them because its what human beings do and regardless of whether you can afford to have a child or not ?

Almost no one who has children can afford them. It hasn't stopped anyone though - In fact, you can even gain financially in the right circumstances.