I’m already experiencing this. My son has asked not to come on the family holiday as he wants to go away with and spend time with his friends. It’s sad. Very sad but this is his life now. It was never enough time with him. 18 years is too short!
Hopefully it’s not forever, our 18 & 20 year old are coming away with us later this year at their request, the elder has come home from Uni today and said it’s so good to be home - and I believe him😅....something to do with a full fridge and clean bedding me thinks...
something else to prepare for - don't assume they will come home for every holiday, my daughter and her friends have stayed in London most of the year - I thought she's only be gone for 10 weeks at a time - heartbreaking but also reassuring that she is happy.
Aghhhh I can see this coming and my two are just 16 and 14. What I am really struggling with though is not the sadness (yet?) but the worry. I worry about them all the time whenever they are out of the house - partly because they’re often mountain biking or surfing or cycling in our crazy west country roads ... but also just an inbuilt anxiety that ‘something will happen to them’. I’ve found this transition from having small children where I had quite a bit of control over what they did and how, to teenagers leading their own independent lives really difficult. Does the worry every stop?? I can’t imagine how I will feel when they leave home completely!!
Oh no. I have twins and felt that unravelling today already (at 14) as they skipped off to school camp. I was looking forward to a bit of p&q but did feel a bit emotional in the car on the way home . It's going to be over in one go in four years after 27 years of children at home. Hopefully one of my step kids will oblige me with a grandchild to ease that time.
OMG I'm in tears. I'm a reader from Germany and still have some time "left" with my eldest, but I can feel it coming and you've put it into words so perfectly! I feel that not many friends (also mums!) can fully relate, but it's exactly all of this that I will be so desperately missing!
I was so ‘not prepared’ for the last summer or empty nest. I stupidly thought that as I worked the emptying wouldn’t affect me as my time would be occupied as normal with work - how wrong, very very wrong. I ‘thought’ empty nest would only impact my friends who had been working hard in the home raising a family. I didn’t do anything at all to prepare for the grief that hit me like a sledgehammer. It’s been a rollercoaster but I’m now getting my head around it all. It’s not easy and don’t underestimate the impact this stage of life can have on you, no matter how ‘together’ you think you are!
Yes we found the week our eldest left home utterly devastating despite thinking everyone was making a huge drama of empty nest up until that point. A lesson learned.
I’m already experiencing this. My son has asked not to come on the family holiday as he wants to go away with and spend time with his friends. It’s sad. Very sad but this is his life now. It was never enough time with him. 18 years is too short!
Hopefully it’s not forever, our 18 & 20 year old are coming away with us later this year at their request, the elder has come home from Uni today and said it’s so good to be home - and I believe him😅....something to do with a full fridge and clean bedding me thinks...
something else to prepare for - don't assume they will come home for every holiday, my daughter and her friends have stayed in London most of the year - I thought she's only be gone for 10 weeks at a time - heartbreaking but also reassuring that she is happy.
Aghhhh I can see this coming and my two are just 16 and 14. What I am really struggling with though is not the sadness (yet?) but the worry. I worry about them all the time whenever they are out of the house - partly because they’re often mountain biking or surfing or cycling in our crazy west country roads ... but also just an inbuilt anxiety that ‘something will happen to them’. I’ve found this transition from having small children where I had quite a bit of control over what they did and how, to teenagers leading their own independent lives really difficult. Does the worry every stop?? I can’t imagine how I will feel when they leave home completely!!
Oh no. I have twins and felt that unravelling today already (at 14) as they skipped off to school camp. I was looking forward to a bit of p&q but did feel a bit emotional in the car on the way home . It's going to be over in one go in four years after 27 years of children at home. Hopefully one of my step kids will oblige me with a grandchild to ease that time.
OMG I'm in tears. I'm a reader from Germany and still have some time "left" with my eldest, but I can feel it coming and you've put it into words so perfectly! I feel that not many friends (also mums!) can fully relate, but it's exactly all of this that I will be so desperately missing!
I was so ‘not prepared’ for the last summer or empty nest. I stupidly thought that as I worked the emptying wouldn’t affect me as my time would be occupied as normal with work - how wrong, very very wrong. I ‘thought’ empty nest would only impact my friends who had been working hard in the home raising a family. I didn’t do anything at all to prepare for the grief that hit me like a sledgehammer. It’s been a rollercoaster but I’m now getting my head around it all. It’s not easy and don’t underestimate the impact this stage of life can have on you, no matter how ‘together’ you think you are!
Yes we found the week our eldest left home utterly devastating despite thinking everyone was making a huge drama of empty nest up until that point. A lesson learned.