<p>The very evening I got back from taking D (our youngest child) to college, I was discussing cars with H. He’d been planning to use the car our children used in high school for his 40-mile commute, but D is attached to it and wants him to save it for her. I threw in the statement that I’d like a smaller car to drive. I’ve been doing that for months, with the usual response that it would be a while before we could think about anything like that. This time his response was, “Why don’t you start looking?” I jumped on it, then took him on Saturday (8 days after the original conversation) to look at my favorites, and we bought one on the spot. </p>
<p>Do other people jump right in to significant changes when their kids leave the nest?</p>
<p>No, I bought my Mini before D left. Good thing; we wouldn’t have been able to justify spending the money once her tuition kicked in.</p>
<p>So what did you get? </p>
<p>My major change so far was a return to teaching piano when D left last year. But I would have done it whether she left or not; the timing was coincidental. I took a year off after our return from Germany, with every intention of starting my studio again eventually.</p>
<p>The other thing I did was go to Germany for 2 weeks when H had a business trip last year. It was never possible for me to just pick up and go with him before, when I had kids at home.</p>
<p>And now we are considering moving. Again, the timing is somewhat coincidental, but the freedom to do radical things like this is greater. (Although we moved to Germany when we still had two kids at home, so it’s not like we make many decisions depending upon our kids!)</p>
<p>Guess we didn’t go radical enough . . . just downsized from a Chrysler Pacifica to a Rav4. H is big on having cargo space and a roof rack available (for golf clubs and Christmas trees), and he’s driving the (1996) Sebring convertible that used to be my fun car, so no room in it.</p>
<p>We may also move next year to get closer to H’s job. I went on a year’s leave 3 years ago and haven’t gone back, so living near my job and not making our kids change schools in high school no longer no longer apply. After hearing at S’s orientation in 2005 about how important coming “home” to familiarity can be during freshman year, I had lobbied not to move until D has a year under her belt. Now it’s hitting H that actually selling and moving would be a pain in the current real estate market and that he wouldn’t be close to his favorite golf course, so we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.</p>
Good thing; we wouldn’t have been able to justify spending the money once her tuition kicked in.</p>