Kids — they change your life forever.

There are the sleepless nights, enough diapers to sink a navy ship and, well, don’t get us started on what happens to your sex life. Ha!

But despite all this, most moms reckon having children is the best thing they’ve ever done. We’ll high-five that. But here’s the thing that’s rarely discussed: the mums who don’t say that. The mums who realize they’ve made a big, fat life mistake and should never have had children at all.

Here, a handful of women who have shared how they wish they could turn back time and do it all differently.

Stressed stay-at-home mom

“Does anyone else regret having your child? I loved my old life. My husband really wanted a child and I put it off for so long, just knowing that it’s not my calling.

“I gave in after so many rows thinking I would adjust. It was either that or leave my husband whom I loved very much.

“My son is 2 years old and it has been such a lonely and desperate struggle. I feel like my wonderful life has turned upside down. I still do not feel like a mother. I look after my son full time, I even breastfed for a year, yet it just feels so …hollow.

“It’s not me. I miss my old life so much I just feel like walking out and leaving my husband and son. I hate playing in the park. I want to go to a gallery. I hate watching Peppa Pig — I want to read a novel. I hate going to playgroups — I want to have lunch with friends. I do everything I can for my son and he is lovely. Yet motherhood so far has left me feeling like I have been conned out of my real life.

“Will life ever return to normal. Will my son feel that I am detached? I don’t think I’m depressed. Has anyone else felt like this?”

This mom of one posted on mumsnet.

Missing the old life

“If given the choice, would you turn the clock back and have a child free life?

“I’m desperately sad. I love my children very much but I preferred life before and I want it back.

“I’m just a frazzled mess all the time with no confidence. I wake up and cry knowing it’s just another day of dealing with crying arguing whiny children. They’re three and one. I know it will probably eventually get better, but this is 4 years that I’ve spent miserable and struggling. Can’t have nice holidays or days out because the kids make it stressful, house is a tip and we don’t have time to sort it. Just feel like I don’t see the point.

“The kids are fine, I do a lot with them, they’re very loved. But how I wish I could turn back the clock and not go through this.

“Has anyone ever felt this total despair with young children and it’s got completely better to the point where you are glad that you had them? Because I can’t imagine life being better than it would have been if I’d not had them.

“Added to this of course is the extreme guilt that there are so many people that would do anything to have two healthy children and a loving partner. But I’m so miserable.”

This mother of two posted on mumsnet.

Single-mother hardship

“I regret having my daughter.

“She is now 12 and it is easier as they get older, but sometimes I look at her and wish she had never been born. I was/am a single mother and right from the start the moment the midwife gave her to me I didn’t feel this instant love that people talk of, all I felt was the huge weight of regret.

“Being a single mother with a baby that hardly slept and screamed all the time was awful, I was constantly exhausted, but I never told anyone about how I really felt for fear of being judged, I couldn’t give her to my parents for a night or two because of their drinking.

“It was no better when she was a toddler the terrible two’s were a nightmare not until she turned three did I start to get a break and she finally went into a routine and finally started to sleep at night.

“And now now as if by magic she is twelve. Of course I love her with every fibre of my being, but it’s been so hard and the boredom of being a parent is mind-numbing. The home-work, cooking, cleaning & and all that rubbish, most of the time I feel like I am a zombie just going through the motions waiting until she leaves home.

“I picked the wrong man to be my daughter’s father he left when I was pregnant never paid a penny toward her upkeep or been to see her. I feel like a failure all the time, like I’m doing it wrong. I try to be a good mum, but I just find it exhausting.

“As if by a miracle my daughter is a happy kid, we have been through a lot together. She was bullied when younger which I and the school put a stop to by me creating wholly hell at her school, we have worked hard to build up her confidence from those days. I guess I worry I don´t show her enough love sometimes.

“Regret for me is wishing she had been born into a loving home not by a single mother doing motherhood by painting by numbers.”

This mom posted on the Facebook group I Regret Having Children.

Ready to walk

“I have 10 month old twins, and I hate my life.

“My husband is in the Army, so away a lot. I hate the monotony and the constant CONSTANT crying and battles for attention. I’ve hated it since they were born.

“Since having them I’ve become increasingly bitter, depressed and angry. I want to start over but my husband will not sacrifice his career and won’t have full custody.

“I do not want to be a single mum as this would just increase in the intensity.

“I’m not keen on adoption as I’m in the UK so they would just be taken into the care system and I wouldn’t know if they were okay, open adoptions are not legal here.

“Does anyone have any other options or advice? Starting to feel like my only option is to suck it up or hand them over to social services.”

A mother posted on I Regret Having Children.