<p>Someone may have already suggested this since I didn’t read through all the replies, but maybe you could look into hosting an exchange student or even doing foster care.
There is a huge need for both. If you don’t want to make the huge commitment to foster care, they are always looking for mentors or even respite parents (to give foster parents a break) Basically, they are so desperate for any help,there are lots of ways to get involved.</p>
<p>I think I know exactly how mythmom feels. Raising kids is my dream job and I have enjoyed every second. I too have many other dimensions to my life and it is all good, but my kids and my family were/are always my favorite. And it is okay. It just is.</p>
<p>Our first year of empty nesting included some very delayed and necessary renovations…nothing too awesome…asbestos roof gone, pink bathroom demo’d. Anyway…it gave me structure and meaning enough to delay till now the real deal.
Very uncertain where I am heading in terms of employment in this recession but likely to update my credentials and at least try for paid work.<br>
I just finished read Freedom by Franzen. I must say, I give it applause…just thowing it out there to those of you in long marriages like Walter and Patty’s with children who made it through fine colleges…Patty’s use and misuse of her Freedom was food for thought --and there were many many avenues for thought in this book…from global warming, the threat of overpopulation and preservation of songbirds to the many many mysteries of love and responsibility, final years with aging parents…and although this is a dense read and a sometimes cynical one, I really enjoyed the way Franzen managed to refocus on the characters and bring things round in the end…it got almost Tolstoyan in the concluding chapters…but read more like a more detailed and deeper Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire in other ways when Franzen turned his pen into skewering our vulnerabilities. He was even occasionally very witty…not as generously so as Twain when he held the mirror up to US society in his day…but nevertheless…I did laugh out loud a lot despite how too close for comfort his targeting became at times.
It’s a good read Oh Ye Fiftysomethings…
I found it a good read for my transition to New Freedom from parenting…just sayin. I don’t think I will even fix my run on sentences above.</p>
<p>Everybody was right in telling me this wouldn’t last long(empty nest) .Son #2 has announced he will return home in Jan. so he can save up some money .He has f/t job and going to night school to earn a CPA for his job, so we would be happy to have him back for awhile .</p>
<p>Every night I pray to the gods of empty nests to empty mine again and every day they mock me when D1 and S come home.</p>
<p>Doesn’t sound like your S will be around much, though. His stuff will be there; messes will magically appear…We’ll look forward to future threads about how to deal with kids who have been on their own but now are under the parental roof. LOL!</p>