Yep @3girls3cats we are back to where we were before break. My husband and I do enjoy our time together, but we both have moments of severe missing, sometimes to the point of a tummy ache.
@psychomomma, that was so sweet of your son! I would have bawled my eyes out I think. Amazing memory, he must be a great boy.
This is out last day - kids heads out tomorrow. He did his last get together with friends last night and is spending the day at home. No last second packing and late night like he did in August.
Reading this sentence brings back my sweet memory of doing this the evening before the flight to school every August (Occasionally in January and other break. DS flied home essentially every break: Thanksgivings, Christmas, Spring Break, and Summer Break.)
We rarely drink coffee at home. But we would always buy Starbucks Coffee (the “ice coffee” kind that you refrigerate beforehand – no time to make hot coffee because we wanted to maximize ours and/or DS’s sleep time because it could be not many hours over such a night) and drank coffee in the morning when we drove our kid to the airport.
After we returned from the airport, my wife would go straight to be bed, and I obsessively monitor the flight on flightaware (to see if there could be delay, etc. And whether the connection flight’s schedule was unchanged.) Usually, when we first got home from the airport, the plane had not taken off yet. I could do this because DS’s flight was always on Saturday. It is often the case that he arrived at campus after 7:00 pm, occasionally even after 8:00 pm.
I miss those years.
@mcat2, what beautiful memories.
We have a week left and she leaves again…so honestly has spent more time with friends than us ( go figure ) I will have 4 days with her since she is the last of her friends to leave. I think I will take her down to Cape May for lunch.
My husband and I are looking forward to going in our hot tub with a little privacy !
Well here we go . . . the packing is done and we’re checking for finishing touches. The kid leaves tomorrow morning. The good news is that the ticket home for spring break is purchased so it won’t be such a long stretch this time. When he came home for Christmas we hadn’t seen him since August. It is bittersweet but, as he said, it’s time to get back to moving on with life.
DS just called. My wife is talking to him at this moment. I will ask her what they talked about later. Learning that everything on his end (now also his GF, it seems one of her parents will visit her in a month & stay for 2 weeks and she will go back home for a week also) is fine is good enough for us.
We’ll all get to that point eventually I guess @mcat2.
The opening lines of Leaving on a Jet Plane are running through my head, but in this case HIS bags are packed and by the door and I will wake him up to say goodbye before I head to work. I warned him last night before I went to bed.
It is interesting how different people react to their kids going off to college - especially the youngest. Some of my friends just love the empty nest, others, like me, more mixed. Mine had a very short break and I had to work so besides the holiday itself and a family party the day after Christmas, he was out and about with his friends. We went to an out of town family wedding so I did get to hang out with him but then he went right back to school. Different from when my older kids came home for 3 or more weeks and would sleep late while the younger siblings had to get up for school and we had to go to work.
This was easier for me than August. I have a full life but I still miss those kid days. Maybe it is also because I did not have my kids super young, so recognize how quickly the days slip by. Of course I feel lucky and ever so grateful that my kids are doing well at the moment. Having them away at school or working is how it should be. It just went by all too fast (total cliche but totally true).
Hope all our kids have a great semester.
It seems to get easier in grad school kids- but not really.
This is my baby and @NorthernMom61, today I felt that tummy ache you described. I left D at the airport and watched her make her way through the security lines until I couldn’t see her anymore. I’m grateful that the weather forecast for Boston has improved so she’ll be able to get back without weather woes but it was hard to say goodbye.
I am hoping that I’ll adjust back to an empty nest house quickly.
“A parent is only as happy as their saddest child” …when I heard this phrase it really hit home for me. I am now trying to appreciate the regular, no news, but-everything-is-kinda-fine days with my far away kids. When it’s quiet, and it’s been a quiet transition back to reality for the youngest, I know that all is well. When the phone rings, I still get a knot in my gut sometimes…until they say everything is fine.
Parenting adult kids is the second best job on the planet. First best is parenting your wee ones. Sigh…
I hope you bounce back too @3girls3cats. It is a profound sense of bittersweet.
I feel like I turned a corner this week though I think it has been happening gradually all along. On Friday evening my husband and I went out to dinner with a young couple (early 30s) and their almost two year old son. The young wife was an intern under my husband’s supervision a couple years ago, and her husband’s job here is finished and they are moving back to the states today. Anyway, it was such a delightful dinner and by the end I was having such a nice time pushing little cars and firetrucks across the table with their son after we were finished eating but still chatting and hanging out. I thought to myself, this is so great, this is the direction we may be heading in someday, except that at some point it might be my daughter, her husband and my grandchild. That made me feel so happy and excited for the future. I realized I am no longer feeling so sad about my adult child leaving home, but getting more and more excited about having and adult child in my life and all the joys that has the potential of bringing (and is already).
The fact that she is doing extremely well at school and is showing in every way that she is in the right place in her life right now has sure helped with the process too.
I will always miss my little girl, but she is all grown up. So I am looking forward not back. Today is her 19th birthday. She will always be the sweetest Valentine’s Day gift in my life.
Hope that you are all making strides too.
Took me some time to find this thread…but here it is…and here we are - most of our “empty nest” kids should be finishing up the school year - many of them the freshman school year! My D2, has exams this week and we pick her up Friday!
In a way…WHERE DID THIS YEAR GO!!!
Now we have to change routines again. I’m THRILLED to have her home. But I also learned to really like my “new” routine as well. My H is often not home in the evenings so I learned to eat my dinner when I got all my other “wants” done - exercise, cleaning - whatever - and often don’t eat dinner till 8 or 8:30 - that won’t fly when she is back home!
She will be going back to her job of last summer - that means going back to car sharing - we hope to get her a car next summer - but for this summer, sharing it is!
And her STUFF. Where are we going to put all the STUFF! Clearly clothes and stuff go back to her room. But all the extras - time to find some space for it!
So, all of you who may have been " a mess" last fall when they were leaving - how are you feeling now that the year is winding down and the house is about to get “busy” again?!!!
My nest will remain empty. They will be home for a week and then they are off again to do summer research. I will have them in the month of August, so I will have to wait for a “busy” house again. And even then it won’t last long until they leave again.
DH and I are anxiously awaiting August, when our youngest two kids will leave! The last five years with our mentally ill son have been exhausting, and our small company (just the two of us) has suffered. Now that DS is doing well in an apartment with staff on-site, it will be wonderful to get his two siblings off to school and concentrate on work!
Mine is coming home in a few weeks for the entire summer. She has accepted a job offer nearby. I have to admit that I am counting the days and thrilled that she will be home with us for a few months. 
This has been a rough year for me. D2 graduated from college last June and left for her post-college job 1,000 miles away two weeks later. She has been home once, for a few days at Christmas. D1 was living on the west coast and decided to move to the east coast (same city as younger sis) last fall. She was home for three weeks in the middle of the move. The empty nest with my daughters not having regular vacations has been difficult to adjust to.