<p>The last of my four kids is going to university in the Fall (so graduating in 2013). You'd think it would get easier with each kid but it doesn't :P! It's especially tough because this will truly be a case of "empty nest syndrome" this time. How are/did others deal with this?</p>
<p>I’m sending my only kid away in the fall!</p>
<p>I sent my last one away in 2006…as a freshman. So, we’re pretty used to the “empty nest”. I can tell you…I do miss my kids. I do NOT miss “the stuff”. I don’t miss the endless carpooling and attending various EC events (all the time). I LOVE having my car in the garage when I need it…oh…and with gas in it. I LOVE having the food I need to prepare dinner IN the fridge when I go to make dinner (“sorry mom, I used that cheese to make nachos after school”…a POUND OF IT???). When we turn out the lights at bedtime…no lights are on at all. The shower and the washer/dryer are not running endlessly. Our electric bill went from $150 a month to $75…no kidding. We don’t stay up waiting for the kids to come home…we still worry, but it’s different than having them stroll in the house well after midnight!! And we grownups can cook whatever WE like for dinner and not worry about feeding the kids something THEY like.</p>
<p>We keep in touch via cell phone, email, IM. And they DO come home. Every time they come, it gets easier and easier to see them go back to school or jobs.</p>
<p>You’ll get used to it!!</p>
<p>S4, the last, is off to college at the end of August. We had a couple of previews when he went to Japan last summer and then went to a state university in another city for a summer program. Currently, he’s house-sitting for a former teacher, so we haven’t seen him for a few days. </p>
<p>Coping will be most difficult for my wife, as she is already dreading his leaving (she didn’t like me talking about making plane reservations yesterday). I’m guessing more phone contact will be in order and I offered to set the computer up for video, but she declined. We are making plans to do some remodeling/painting once he leaves.</p>
<p>My only is leaving in the fall too. I’ll miss him terribly. I’ll send him care packages, be there if he needs me, and hope he sends some quasi-regular updates (my prediction: updates will be copious for the first two weeks, then practically nothing).</p>
<p>How am I going to cope with it – working extra hours (and making extra money, yee-haw!), eating whatever I want without having to worry about whether it appeals to him, and sleeping 8pm to 4am if I choose. And rejoicing in not having to make the morning/afternoon commute to his high school anymore.</p>
<p>Aside from that – it’s a tossup between exercise, kleenex, and chocolate. :o</p>
<p>^^owlice: Sending only child away in the fall.</p>
<p>D2, the baby, is leaving in September and just the dog and I will be hanging around the house during the day. I’ll miss going to the ECs and hanging out with the people I met volunteering for the ECs–but probably not bad enough to continue volunteering after she leaves. </p>
<p>I will be waiting to see what destiny brings to my door…Something always pops up to fill the vacuum.</p>
<p>My youngest is leaving in September. :(</p>
<p>She’s actually going to be class of 2012 because she did her first year of college locally, living at home. But she did that all along with the plan to transfer after one year… and so she is.</p>
<p>I’ll miss her like crazy. The first one, when he left, I missed too… but it’s different for me with the last one leaving. More of a transition.</p>
<p>Like Thumper said, with my son leaving some other things left too, like his ravenous appetite, his sloppiness, his time-and-energy draining ECs, etc. But my daughter is just so low-maintenance, she helps out around the house, and is delightfully witty company.</p>
<p>It will be quite a change around here. Hubby and I may have to adopt a couple more dogs.</p>
<p>UGH…after a wonderful career and then an older SAHM I will be an empty nester in three weeks. Will travel during the fall to see D2 play college sports and visit D1 when she wants us to. Need to find something to keep me occupied.</p>
<p>S2, the baby, is heading off in the fall. S1 left four years ago and the first few weeks were filled with worry about how he was doing. I don’t think that I’ll have the same level of worry this time, but I really enjoy having him around and anticipate having to get through a period of sadness. My friends are already planning activities for that first week to keep me occupied.</p>
<p>Oh Good Lord, This is perfect posting for me. The youngest of our 4 daughters is leaving for college the end of August. Raising my children, my 4 lovely beautiful daughters has been the biggest privilege, the most difficult, most challenging thing I have done in my life…and I would not have changed one day of it. I started this journey in August of 1982, when my first daughter was born and now with our 4th and final daughter off to college, 27 years of hard work and hopes, dreams and challenges have come to an end. </p>
<p>Empty Nest? </p>
<p>I imagine I will cry for several days and then I hope to sit down, have a cup of coffee (or maybe a well deserved cocktail! 
) with my very patient husband…(oh yea…him? ! ? )and toast one another for a job well done.</p>
<p>Oh yea…did I mention anything about a “little” crying? :)</p>
<p>the time flies by so quickly. . . .i’ve been cleaning house today, giving away old baseball gloves, roller skates, bags of clothes, books, even curtains printed with planets and cool cartoonish cars from infant days. it’s bittersweet. my last one leaves in a few weeks. of course i cherish every moment, even the ones i regret, b/c these years–good and bad–have shaped our lives. it’s a new kind of parenting from this point forward.</p>
<p>Me too. D2, the baby is leaving in September and I am anticipating feeling very lost. I have always worked full time, but my focus has most decidely been on my girls, not my career. I am so proud of the lovely women they are becoming, but it is very scary to think that they are off on their own so soon. I just cannot believer how quickly life goes by. I will definitely miss the day to day of seeing her and sharing downtime, because D2 is a very good companion, and unlike her sister, quite happy to stay home on occasion and chill with mom and dad. But both are at the U only 45 minutes away, so it won’t be hard to visit when the feeling strikes, so I am luckier than many.</p>
<p>i envy you, fredmar. mine are both 1,500 miles away;-(</p>
<p>Great post! Youngest of my 3 is leaving in the Fall. I have enjoyed almost every minute of raising my children but I am looking forward to having a clean house, not so much laundry etc. My kids go to school about 2 hours away so I see them at least once a month and if I really missed them too much I could go have dinner with them, that has only happened three times in 5 years I think. I am giving myself 1 year to rediscover my life and decide what I want to do when I grow up:) I told my kids the next Christmas card will be with our 3 dogs instead of 3 kids…I feel good that my husband I did a good enough job that my kids felt comfortable going away and got into good schools. It is funny though, my 2 older kids (20 and 24) seem to be hanging around a lot this summer, even though they have their own apartments but with a difference, they are a lot neater and they do their own laundry. If we miss HS sports, we go to my nephews’ games. I am going to enjoy my time before round 3, when they start to get married and have kids!</p>
<p>Son 3 starts in late August. Son 1 graduates a couple of weeks before that. I am more worried that Son 1 will return than that I will be sad about an empty nest.</p>
<p>I’m with Any1Can - we’ve had a pretty intense 22 years of hands-on parenting. SAHM, 10 years of homeschooling, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc., etc… I’m ready to get my house back and have the boys come home and VISIT - as often as they want!</p>
<p>I’m ready for the next stage - a little empty nesting with DH, seeing the boys start their own lives…</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll get misty when son 2 actually starts college, but it didn’t happen at Prom, or graduation, or anything else yet. Maybe it’s the intensity of having 3 stairstep kids, but as each stage ended we’ve always been READY for the next one.</p>
<p>I also have spent many years in immersion parenting – stay-at-home mom, homeschooling, and kids with heavy EC committments – and I always thought that, while I loved the experience, when its season was past there was a life of my own to get back to. I still think that, but not the same way I used to, I guess.</p>
<p>It is striking me as a passage that should come, and must come, and that will have its own rewards… but I still feel quite sad to see my youngest and my only daughter leave.</p>
<p>And I’m happy, too, for her. She is really excited by it all.</p>
<p>DD, youngest of 4, is a rising Junior so my supposedly empty nest was supposed to start 2 years ago. After a brief adjustment and missing her terribly, I enjoyed it for about 3 months. DH and I had so much freedom to do and eat what we wanted, when we wanted. then S3 came home and the nest has not been empty since. Boomerangs. this economy is tough on those trying to get started.</p>
<p>rentof2, ditto here. Youngest and only daughter leaving in mid August.</p>
<p>Only child is leaving in 6 weeks.</p>
<p>I’ve been bracing myself for a long time for Empty Nest, but I hadn’t anticipated Last Summer Syndrome – such an emotional rollercoaster. One minute I just want to grab on tight and never let her go. The next, I can’t get her out of the house soon enough! (Am I the only one?)</p>
<p>We’re having an Empty Nest Dry Run this weekend. D is off to San Francisco with friends, no chaperone. My initial instinct was to say No, but as she correctly pointed out, 3 months from now she could go away for a weekend with her college buddies and I’d never even know, much less have veto power. So I let her go, and am choosing to look at this weekend as practice for both of us (although I couldn’t resist a few motherly pointers, which irritated her no end). I even waived the “Call me when you get there” requirement. But she did text when she got there which made me happy.</p>