Prelude To An Empty Nest

My husband and I began discussing the impending prelude to our empty nest in July. Our beautiful daughter, then home for summer vacation, was to be a college senior at the end of August. Our strapping son was looking forward, nearly as much as we were, to his freshman year at a university two hours away from home. Life was good. We knew this empty nest was only a temporary respite since children such as ours generally return home for spontaneous visits, scheduled vacations, and an eventual post graduation homecoming. My honey and I have had enough mental health training to maintain a genuinely positive approach to our children’s separation & individuation; and we truly look forward to the day they both have wonderful jobs, relationships, and apartments in New York City.

Our empty nest got off to a bad start following my beloved’s unexpected health crisis. Just as we were beginning to cope with the physical and emotional side effects of the situation and appreciate our joint solitude, our much loved children began returning home for unscheduled week-end visits (so far two for each offspring, but who's counting). Last Friday, while I was out to dinner with friends in the Soho/Village area, I received a text message from my boy saying he’d come home and taken my car. He subseqently saw friends, slept, and spent some quality time with us (his adoring parents) on Sunday before going back to school.

This week-end, it was our daughter who returned home. We celebrated her belated birthday with a lovely dinner out, addressed some issues (which she’d kill me if I revealed), shopped for her groceries while she took a nap, and returned her to school before week-end traffic got out of hand.

It appears that once our children are back at school and we are home alone, my sweetie and I high-tail it up to our attic love nest with the swiftness and desire of high school lovers whose parents just left for an evening out. It’s during these times that we have the most fun, laugh the hardiest, and make the sweetest love.

For those of you with young children, who believe those scary stories about the empty nest syndrome, be assured that there are happier alternatives… especially if you’re a goddess and her man.