Hello Sarah,
The childhood is very nice part of life, because every people around us care about us. They wish us all good and try to teach us many things. At least they are supposed to... I don't speak about the pathology, because I had (and have until now) wonderful family and can say nothing bad about my teachers.
Anyway lack of possibility of making my own decisions and being forced to fit in something like a frame is what I wouldn't like to live again. So I think my current situation of a man just after 40 is much better.
And what about being older. I sometimes envy that older people have more time to do the things they are interested in. But when I think about the diseases and progressive weakness the people from my parents' generation experience, I think that I'm in the best part of my life now.