The empty nest…it does, at times, feel quite empty. The four of us are a close family, and raising our children was my number one priority. My little darlings, shown above with their mommy, are now 22 and 19, one in grad school and one in his first year of college. So now Randy and I spend most of our time together without children. Most of the time it is fine and enjoyable….sometimes, the house is so quiet. It isn’t just that Alexandra and Wes have left….their friends (who spent A LOT of time here also) are gone as well. Yes, my house, once a bastion of chaotic activity, is now quiet.
Randy and I enjoy traveling, and of course we talk with the kids often as the age of cell phones and Skype make distances seem unimportant. Alexandra is in Boston and Wes is in Southern California, so they couldn’t be farther apart and still be in this country. They come home, we visit them. Of course, things are not the same and it takes some effort to adjust.
It has been more difficult for me since the Winter break, and I’m not sure why. I spent 3 weeks in Mexico, and since I came home the silence of the house has really crashed on me. I wander around, feeling a bit lost, actually. I’m sure I’ll get over it. I suppose it also has to do with moving my 82 year old mother into a Senior Community apartment. We’ve been trying to talk her into it forever, and since she fell a couple of weeks ago so she has finally agreed to move. It is absolutely the right thing to do, she will be near people and activities and I know she will be happy, but something feels strange about that as well. Senior communities are for grandparents, not parents! How can my mother be elderly? Doesn’t that mean I am getting older? How can my children be adults so soon? How could it have gone by so quickly?
I know this is just a little “bump” in the empty nest syndrome. In many ways I appreciate the time without children. The last few weeks have been pretty blah, and I suppose that is why I feel a bit lost. It just tells me I need to get moving. So tonight, a poker game with friends (all empty nesters we met when we had little ones). What do you want to bet we talk about our kids all night?
