<p>Will have an empty nest come August and I find that I'm already missing my kid when they aren't home. I can't imagine what it will be like in August when they aren't coming home at all. Anyone else feeling this way?</p>
<p>ONETOGO...please write us at the end of the summer. We miss our kids also...don't get me wrong. But by the end of the summer after their senior year, I couldn't WAIT for them to be off at college. They were more than ready to go, and we were ready for them to go.</p>
<p>The empty nest is wonderful. You'll get used to it!!!</p>
<p>ONETOGO,
I know exactly how you feel. I have only one child, a daughter, and we're extremely close. I completely understand that she needs her independence, and that going away to school will be really good for her. It's just not going to be fun for me... I'm expecting that the first few months will be tough. (Sigh!)</p>
<p>I have an empty nest this year ... with a college sophomore and a high schooler on sophomore year abroad. We've been able to do lots of travel, dinners out, and other fun stuff ... but I am just about counting the days until the high school kid's plane lands! </p>
<p>(Less than two months to go ... and this week the lucky dog is on spring break traveling to Venice from the south of France where he is going to school!)</p>
<p>Not as bad as I'd feared--though I miss my son every day. We keep in touch and he'll be home for some of the summer. He was so ready to go and has had such a great year, his mom has to be happy for him.</p>
<p>Check the other threads , including the parent cafe, about this.</p>
<p>The best thing about the empty nest is reading the notes and hearing the phone messages that convey "I'm happy." It really does help.</p>
<p>My youngest is going to college this year, and I feel the same emptiness. None of my oldest came back home, one is still in college studying abroad, one is in graduate school, the oldest just got his PhD and got married... we're old folks living of memories...</p>
<p>It takes some time, but you will get used to the new pattern. There will still be plenty of communication between you -- especially if both of you work at it -- and at least for a while, there will be fairly frequent visits home and maybe even some summers at home. And as time goes on, you will find new things to fill the newly available time in your week.</p>
<p>But I think that nothing will ever fill the gap completely. As far as I'm concerned, raising my kids was the most important thing I ever did. No matter what new things I do, nothing will ever match it.</p>
<p>I agree, Marian, and no one will ever be as interesting to me as my own child. But I am remembering what I found interesting in my husband and that's a good thing. Since I've lost my direct ties to our local schools, I'm working on making other connections to our community, also a good thing. And the kid does come home.</p>
<p>Good to read that I'm not alone in these feelings. I'm already experiencing "anticipatory loss" as younger D prepares to leave. She'll only be 3.5 hours away, but her seven year older sister never moved back to our area after college (and she's a 2 hour plane ride away). I try not to think about it, and I'm very happy for her, and with her school choice, but there's this lingering sadness.</p>