I don’t know why we insist on New Year’s resolutions in January. Midwinter has to be the least inspirational time of year to do anything. We should move our New Year to September, when young people actually move on in one way or another, and the rest of us realise that well over half of… Read More September: You say goodbye and I say hello!
Summertime… and the living should be easy, but I fear that what we can actually expect will be invigorating but much less relaxing than Gershwin. Here is what’s likely to be going on in the mature family’s house this summer: Temperamental weather. Living in the British Isles, we talk the talk about barbecues and picnics,… Read More Summertime with adult children – chilling with challenges
I guess I knew that there was ample chance that I would eat my smug empty nester blog words at some point, and this month it happened. My youngest, let’s call her Edwina again, has left her uni halfway through her first year and moved in back home. We made sure this wasn’t just a… Read More Your child at university – when it doesn’t go quite to plan
So how did this happen? – We stood forlorn in the empty nest only yesterday, it seems, got over it and wrote our empty-bucket list when suddenly – bang! The Boomerang Kid, or recent graduate is back home ‘just until they’ve found a job and somewhere to live’. Result: shoes and coats all over the house… Read More Come back Peter, come back Paul…how to survive life with your Boomerang Kid..
My son has just celebrated his 20th birthday. My son isn’t a teenager any more. There is a sub context there which is how bloody old that makes me, but more relevantly, how quickly he has become the fine young man he is now and how important the next decade is likely to be… Read More Advice to my 20 year old son
Hello Empty Nest – Hello new challenges! Your children, Edwina and Cuthbert, as we have lovingly named them, have now settled in at Readingham University, they have overcome first term flu, knuckled down to some work and may even have cooked a hot meal or two. In the meantime, after the initial spell of weepiness… Read More Enrolling in the University of the Empty Nest
Kids packed off to uni and suddenly the house seems a bit empty. Eerily quiet. And tidy. The initial thrill of the spotless interior gives way to a certain ennui. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little uncomplicated furry creature share that home with you? Or maybe a few years before this stage you… Read More It’s not just any dog….it’s an empty nester dog!
I’ve done that very rare thing of following my own advice and met up with some lovely parents since uni drop-off day to catch up with how everyone has been getting on. An entirely different occasion happened to be my high school reunion (30th – ouch!). Not only have these been fun evenings out (and… Read More 10 Things I’ve learned since finding myself in an empty nest
The uni drop-off “A child enters your home and for the next twenty years makes so much noise you can hardly stand it. The child departs, leaving the house so silent you think you are going mad.” —John Andrew Holmes Together with thousands of other parents all over the UK we dropped our youngest daughter… Read More Where we stand when they’ve flown the nest: from uni drop off back to the empty nest
Hello empty nest... I've been expecting you! 