TEXARKANA MAGAZINE S o your last baby bird has left for college, leaving your nest empty and eerily silent. If you’re feeling blue about it, you’re not alone. Sending your offspring out of your home and into the world is one of life’s greater challenges, and a fair number of emotions are involved. Excitement for your child, apprehension about his or her happiness and success, both academic and social, and worries about your own sense of lost purpose are all to be expected. Life in your home will never be the same once your kids have flown the coop. Even though there will be visits, the rhythm of your family is permanently changed. Of course you welcome this step towards your child’s future success; nobody hopes their child fails to launch. Nevertheless, the melancholy you feel is real and inescapable. Experts say that parents can experience loneliness, sadness, grief and even depression when their children leave home. If these feelings become overwhelming, they say, therapy is a good option. They offer little tips like staying in touch with your child, reminding yourself that parenting is just one phase of adulthood, and taking care of yourself by eating right and getting plenty of exercise.
it more profoundly. Whether or not that’s true, I do feel qualified to offer a few suggestions to those of you who are new to it, and I guarantee they’ll help you out more than healthy eating and daily exercise. As with so many things in life, it makes a difference if you can find a way to look at the bright side. Focusing on the positive of nobody under forty living in your space will perk up your attitude. Raising children is all encompassing and an undeniably selfless endeavor. Embrace the opportunity to worry only about your own needs, and maybe your spouse’s, for food, shelter and comfort. I recommend starting with your laundry hamper. Open it. Look inside. You notice that, like your nest, it is empty. It is eerily silent. Recognize this for the good thing it is. Give a joyful shout and go read a book instead of sorting smelly socks.
Seriously? They pull out the diet-and-exercise card for empty nest syndrome? I don’t know about you, but I tend to think recommending a sensible diet and regular exercise is a copout. Maybe that’s because I’m not a fan of either. Anyway, I’m certainly not an expert, but I did raise and launch an only child. Having had, in keeping with the avian metaphors, all my eggs in one basket, I experienced an empty nest fairly abruptly. Some of those experts say I experienced
MY DRIFT COLUMN BY PATSY MORRISS | PHOTO BY MATT CORNELIUS The Nest is Empty—Now Where’s My Wine
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LIFE & STYLE
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