best transition ever: grandparenting
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Empty Nest

July 17, 2007 | by Natalie Caine | 3 Comments

Right now parents are heading to college orientations and sadly counting the days until they hug goodbye at the dorm. Others are preparing for weddings, grandchildren, children leaving for grad school, jobs, and the service. Some parents are realizing they won

3 Responses

  1. margie says:
    August 5, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    Thank you for this wonderful post Natalie!
    It helped me on this day of grieving my son who will leave our home one week form today!
    He’s out hitting baseball now,and when he comes back I’m going to give him the biggest hug ever!
    Margie

    Reply
  2. Rici W says:
    August 10, 2007 at 9:35 am

    I full time parented for 38 years..having my son at 20, another son at 25, and my daughter at 40. Now, she is grown and moving on,coming and going in and out of my life.
    She lived with her brother this summer to help out, and she starts college in 2 weeks.
    I miss her so much. I get angry at her because she is happy to be away..then I realize I am the one with the problem.
    I suspected it would be hard, but it comes in waves and sometimes it is way harder than I thought.
    And yes, what do I do with the rest of my life?

    Reply
  3. cathy says:
    September 18, 2007 at 5:46 pm

    Rici I needed to hear that. My youngest daughter has started grad school and although not that far away is enjoying immensely being on her own and I was mad at her, too. I know I am the one with the problem but it certainly is hard to realize that she isn’t happy to be away because she doesn’t love her family any more. She is happy to be away because she is being succesful at what she set out to do with her life.

    Reply

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Natalie Caine, M.A. natalie@lifeintransition.org