So my youngest child just left to start junior year in college. What will I do now that I don't have half-empty glasses littering my coffee table, unmade beds to make and candy wrappers in my cushions to collect and dispose of? Seriously, I truly do miss the company and who in the world is going to turn my Roku on so I can catch up on House of Cards. I mean how does that thing work? Everyone asks me what it's like to be an empty nester and I really can't reply - because my kids keep COMING BACK HOME! My youngest is living at home to make a dent in student loans and my oldest just returned from living independently because it's just too darned expensive out in the real world. My husband and I recently returned from renting a beach cottage for a week where all of my kids and their significant others joined us. It was simply wonderful. I kept telling everyone I felt like Rose Kennedy on Hyannis Port - minus the yachts, chefs and servants quarters. But like Rose I really do enjoy having my family around me and I wonder what it will really be like when it's just my husband and I (gulp). I'm sure we'll be holding hands as we sit in our separate bathtubs on the beach. So in anticipation of when that day actually arrives I thought it would be a good idea to start gathering information about how to adjust to this new stage in my life. Listed below are some books and movies that will help me through the process.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Empty Nesters - 101 stories about surviving and thriving when the kids leave home.
The Empty Nest by Karen Stabiner is a collection of essays about what happens when it's just you and your spouse again.
The Empty Nest Cookbook by Joy Smith teaches you how to prepare time-efficient, interesting meals for two - including appetizers and desserts.
It's Complicated is a hilarious look at what happens to Jane Adler when she finds herself an empty nester with a philandering ex-husband who wants to win her back and a new boyfriend who seems too good to be true.
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