<p>I am not known for my discretion!</p>
<p>Seeing my dining room table. Not tripping over shoes in the kitchen. Relinquishing my role as master scheduler. Not buying redbull. No more last minute laundry requests (yes, I still do her laundry…). Finding the scissors in the drawer where it belongs. </p>
<p>@kiddie - Amen! I’m also looking forward to not having to shop vac the hair from her bathroom. </p>
<p>But I will miss her a lot.:(</p>
<p>Starting the car and not seeing “2 miles to E.” </p>
<p>Just emptying the dishwasher myself instead of nagging for 2 days for her to do it. </p>
<p>Opening the dryer and not seeing 3 weeks worth of her laundry in it.</p>
<p>Not picking through her piles of dirty laundry looking for my missing underwear and clothes. </p>
<p>^ Yes, the dishwasher! And she never thinks to check if the dishes are clean. I always have to tell her it needs to be emptied. </p>
<p>Not hearing the words “There is nothing to eat in this house” while there is a full pantry, a full fridge, and of course a full grocery store across the street.</p>
<p>Well, for now I am looking forward to lower grocery bills when 3 of mine take off soon. </p>
<p>HM and ShW, That also crossed my mind, but I’ll still have my younger kids at home for a long while. </p>
<p>Absolutely nothing…it took awhile to adjust and find replacement activities. Now I have 3 hobbies, I love them, but I definitely love much more when either S. with his family or D. are visiting and I have some chance to take care of them or simply seat close to them. There is nothing in a world that can replace that. I have no idea what non-working parents do after the last kid live, at least I work full time. I am absolutely passionate about my hobbies, I love going on vacations and we are thinking about buying a second home (after done paying tuition), but nothing comes any close to just being with your kids. In regard to straight answers in OP, here I go:
- it sleeping in on weekends instead of driving to basketball practice? - Too old for this, I can sleep only 3 -5 hours, more is giving me a headache
- Not having to listen to someone play the violin for six hours every day? - Both of us absolutely loved listen to D’s piano practices. Unfortunately, hers were 15 - 20 min. Somehow she was OK with it and ended up graduating with Music Minor from college. Her private teacher used to say that she had some system and did not need to practice longer. I wish she pracitced longer so that we could enjoy it more.<br>
- Getting first crack at the washing machine? - I always did ALL of our laundry and still ask D. to bring all her dirty clothes when she visits (rarely, does not have time - at Med. School) This is the only house chore that I do and I love it. With only 2 of us, laundry happens once in 2 weeks, there is no reason to run an empty machines. We hire for all other things and my H. cleans the kitchen every day. I am not big cook either, have been very simple all along, I do not care if anybody complains, I really truly cannot enjoy doing something with the recipe in from of me. If one want to eat, there ia a fridge full of food, welcome to grad anything you wish. </p>
<ol>
<li> No more HAVING to cook every night…I hate cooking. 2. Clean house 3. Long weekend trips with DH However, my youngest, a senior this year has been so easy, is a joy to be around and look I forward to seeing him at the end of the day. I keep telling my self the 3 things above to prepare me for the grief of him leaving.</li>
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<p>We have had an empty nest for a few years now, and I treasure it. I shed quite a few tears as the kids left one by one - that was a difficult time. But it has been both soothing and revitalizing to have the house to ourselves again. I don’t miss the sibling drama, the frenemies drama, juggling the cars, masterminding the schedule, or figuring out what food to buy/make so that the greatest number of people would be the least disgruntled.</p>
<p>Agree with all, clean house! D drops her stuff (shoes, papers, keys) in every room, on every counter in the house including dining room table, kitchen couner, fireplace hearth… Every morning in her bathroom it looks like someone fought with the toothpaste. It will be nice to have those items clean on a regular basis without me nagging daily.</p>
<p>The lower food bills! DS is a junior now and it is easier to watch him leave every time. We have new routines that are disrupted when he comes home for a few weeks in the summer. I will miss him, but am happy to get back to real life. </p>
<p>No line for the shower!</p>
<p>Being able to eat Chinese food almost every evening. DS became tired of Chinese food long ago, and we have had to cater to his tastes for years. No more!</p>
<p>I didn’t think about any of this stuff before my daughter left for college last year, but now that she’s back for the summer, the Diet Coke cans left all over the house and the disappearing hairbrush sure do rankle.</p>
<p>Not being told I “have” to watch a YouTube video. Having all my cooking utensils where I would prefer (but honestly, how can you complain about a 21 y.o. who wants to cook for himself?)</p>
<p>Everything else – the mess, the worry, the hair, the sink, the clickety click of texting — I will miss. All of it. </p>
<p>The end of custody litigation.</p>
<p>Having control of what’s on TV.</p>
<p>I have more to lose with D leaving. I will miss my chauffeur for D2, miss my grocery and errand runner, and partime cook. </p>
<p>Having milk for my cereal, as opposed to only a few drops in the bottom of a gallon container.</p>
<p>I have never clean my house, I always had cleanning lady and a clean house, empty nest or not.<br>
If one wants cleanning house, hire cleanning lady, kids have nothing to do with it.
I do not take shower at home either, too much for my dry skin. I can take it only once / day at gym after I swim.
The food bills are much higher when they live outside of the house. My D. has not time to cheaply shop, she grabs whatever…
We never had both kids at home, it was one after another, one at a time, no sibling rivalry.
We never juggle cars, everybody had their own.
Dishwasher is up to my H. to do. We have piles, since we are too lazy to go out. Putiing dishes in dishwasher is wasy too much for me, sometime I do it thoug, primarily when H. is on a business trips. Then our fridge finally getting a bit more empty and I am able to find things there, otherwise my H. keeps it very full, food falling out when you open it.<br>
one biggest disadvantage is that I am flooding my house with the products of my hobbies, kids refuse to take them, they have too much. I try to be very slow, as slow as I can be, but things still getting produced as I have nothing else to do after work. Rosetta Stone has been somewhat a solution, but I cannot do my Spanish for many hours every day, day after day, I get bored with the same activity, I got to switch. </p>
<p>All of the above! Looking forward to traveling with DH in the “off season” when its less expensive.</p>