<p>One year later we have just moved OOS (Florida), with son’s good wishes- no feelings of disrupting his childhood home. I agree about the strangeness after so many years of not having to pay attention to any school’s schedule. No planning life around school breaks. Truly an empty nest, permanently. It does take getting used to. The benefit is since son is no longer a student we can call without considering if he needs to study (he always ignored calls if he didn’t want to talk at the moment). Now that he has had a job for a year he is independent and we can relate as adults. A new stage in life, just as going from being a couple to being parents was a huge shift. Remember to enjoy. You have gained freedom and not lost a child.</p>
<p>Our youngest graduated in May. He’s currently doing an unpaid internship (away from home) that ends on July 31. So it sort of seems like he’s still in college.<br>
I guess he’ll move back in with us when the internship is over which will seem really weird. DH and I have gotten used to being on our own. We are not really attached to the suburb where we raised our kids. We’re ready to move on. </p>
<p>We recently sold our home of 23 years and moved into a rental in preparation to move on with life after kids. Two years ago we built our "next phase of life " house that is five hours away from where we live now. It’s on a hill overlooking a river. The water and our boat are just steps from our backdoor. We go there every couple of weeks and love it.
We can’t wait to move to that home but know it’s impossible until S2 can be self-supporting/settled somewhere. We are in limbo land right now. College is over but we’re stuck in neutral.</p>
<p>Thanks so much to everyone for your support! The logical part of my mind knows I should be happy that my daughter graduated from college in a field that she loves–and she even has a job waiting for her. I was almost afraid to post this because I thought people might say I should be grateful and . . . and . . . but you understand. Thank you!</p>
<p>That limbo land is so frustrating.</p>
<p>Congrats–these milestones are bittersweet. Our D walked for graduation from her U this spring. We thought she was done or nearly so. (Her brother graduated in 2010 & started a great job in 2011–5000 miles from our home.) D recently informed us that she needs more credits and perhaps an internship or two to graduate, so one more year of being parents to a college student.</p>
<p>We are HOPING she will be able to get her degree and a decent job, but not sure how this will all work. Artistic fields are much more unpredictable as to their trajectory. We are enjoying having D home for the summer. When she goes back to school in the fall, she’s expecting to live there for some time, trying to establish herself and then hopefully one day move back to HI, as is S.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone and their wonderful growing kids. Hope they all do great in school, carriers & starting their new lives. Hope we are all able to reinvent ourselves as we choose and don’t live in limbo land too long or get too frustrated. Wis75, that new home sounds idyllic!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My youngest just graduated from high school, and I’m starting to skip threads too. But I’m happy to be done with that-threads with parents wringing their hands at the horrible possibility that their kid won’t get into an Ivy, SAT threads, etc. </p>
<p>I think I’m one of the minority who is actually looking forward to the next phase. I will definitely miss D2, but I can see the positive in a clean house, less emotional ups and downs, and a schedule which is my own to make.</p>
<p>My “only” graduated from college last Sunday, and I can really relate to this thread. While I am so very proud of her and so happy that she is happy, I can’t help but feel sad too. </p>
<p>She has a job in a city she loves and she also has a serious boyfriend. She’s not that far away - a four hour drive - and she still enjoys spending time with her parents… but I know that this is really the last, final break from home and her past with us, her parents. I also know that this is the way life is supposed to be, and I do rejoice that she has sailed through some rocky passages and landed safely (so far!) in the land of adulthood and employment.</p>
<p>But…</p>
<p>It can still be bittersweet. Some days are more bitter, some sweet, and this day feels like one of those “bitter” days. My relationship with my own mother is kind of distant (loving, but distant), and I think that part of me dreads the same for my relationship with my adult D, even though we are now very close.</p>
<p>Our youngest graduated two years ago. Both of our kids are far from home. We are connected to our community in a different way. I serve on two town boards…economic development and a school foundation board. I’m very proud of our community and now really have the time to give back to them. Since we live in a small neighborhood, we still enjoy our neighbors. </p>
<p>When I made that last college payment, I felt like I had won the lottery.</p>
<p>I had hoped that my husband and I would be real empty nesters by now, but instead we have a bounce back college grad kid who is working on his own business from home. And now the rising college sophomore is home for the summer. And our daughter that graduated with her Masters a month ago still hasn’t found a job and although she says she does not want to move back home, that’s a real possibility. So, yes, if everyone is out and working, count your blessings. </p>
<p>There really aren’t that many bulletin boards out there with educated normal people posting about various subjects. I post on another board where many of the posts are grammatically incorrect or people will start insulting each other. For some reason, this cafe works very well to draw a nice group of diverse people.</p>
<p>My only child graduated from college a month ago. We took a longer-than-usual family vacation, and now he’s back in his college town to pack and move home this weekend. He’ll be living here while working (he doesn’t have a job yet) so he can save money to move out, possibly to another city or maybe even abroad. He’s very motivated to start a particular career, so we are not concerned about that.</p>
<p>I do feel concerned about how we’ll live together as three adults. We’ve always gotten along well while he was in college, but now this is a big change from the empty nest. We are in limbo about staying in our house vs. moving. We have many ties here, so we’ll probably stay. I am in limbo in my business (self-employed, sole proprietor), which has not done well over the past couple of years. And H is in limbo over whether to stay in his post-retirement job. I don’t want to overthink everything, as I often do. Aargh.</p>
<p>“I post on another board where many of the posts are grammatically incorrect or people will start insulting each other.”</p>
<p>Kathiep, I hope I won’t be shipped off to one of those boards. Lol. I noticed when I was reading post 26 that I put a comma in the middle of a sentence–and it didn’t need it. No clue why I did that. Oh well, at least I didn’t insult anyone. ;)</p>
<p>I agree that the cafe has a diverse group of posters with a wide variety of knowledge.</p>