by Greg Lincoln
Transitioning due to new changes can sometimes be hard, especially if you are a parent, and those changes include when it comes time for your children to fly the coop.
When one of your children leaves home for school, for camp, or even on a weekend sports trip or a sleepover, you can’t help but feel a deep longing, missing them, and yearning for their return. The home you share with them feels empty and quiet, the nest feels bare.
These little away trips are temporary, and you as a parent feel relieved when your child comes back safe and sound and you can now sleep with uninterrupted slumber.
Your whole life revolves around your children.
When the child you have nurtured and cared for is grown and the time comes for them to leave home to start a new life on their own, this is called empty nesting.
Empty nesting is especially hard on mothers who have cooked many a homemade masterpiece for her child(ren). When she cooks, she often wonders who would eat her food and wishes that her children could be there to eat it with them. Thoughts swirl in her mind about her beloved ones, thinking and wondering if they are hungry.
Or do they need anything? You have done so much for them in all the years prior. What can we do now?
The first night is the hardest. Tears of sadness from missing them so much may even be shed into the pillow under the cloak of darkness. She may confide to others that she is missing her son or daughter and seeking comfort or reassurance. A kind word can ease a troubled mind.
After the first week things settle into a different kind of routine. These feelings are normal. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming, the grief can be deep, especially if you have suffered any kind of loss beforehand in the distant past or recently, and in all the space between.
What you can do is take care of yourself. Make sure that you are in the best health you can be, do it for them and for your future grandchildren.
If you have children still at home, you can teach them how to cook. When they are on their own, it is inevitable that they will have to do their own cooking. They can make easy things like tea, eggs, or pancakes, soup, bread is a good one, and spaghetti.
Many parents have gone through this as long as history has existed. Your own parents may have gone through empty nest syndrome when you left home. Do you remember? Reach back into the catalogues of your memory. For sure we can know that their prayers have followed us through the years and now we are here, today.
Now it is our turn to continue that chain of prayer. Prayer is a powerful tool, let us use it continually. Thank you dear friends for sharing in our joys and sorrows.
