“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Helen Keller Deborah told me during our telephone session that she is obsessing at staying connected with her children at college. She doesn
In my group, sweet Susan said with a slight laugh,
Susan sobbed during our session sharing from her hotel room that she cancelled her flight to stay two days longer in the college town where she dropped off her freshman son. She couldn
Sharon, a mom of a junior in college, during our phone consultation, told me she is torturing herself because she feels so needy. She wants her son to call when he gets there. She wants him to email her how his day is going. She wants to know what he is doing for the weekend.
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Parents are trying to prepare for the big hug and the silent house but most know you can
My daughter has always lived in this house. In two weeks she will be a freshman living in a dorm far away. I will be here not hearing her voice, footsteps, or seeing her jump up on the kitchen counter as I mix brownies for the school picnic. This is the opening of a mother
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A mom sat in my office sobbing. She talked about the change in the family with no children at home. She remembers the fight the week before her son left for college and how painful the words stuck in her gut.
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
Last week our group was concerned about how teenagers are growing up. They know the struggles and joys they had with their kids. Not invited to parties, teased, feeling fat and ugly, sarcastic, shut down emotionally, over-eating, moody, getting into college, perfectionism, lack of sleep, coloring their hair, body piercing , tattoos, boyfriends and girlfriends
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1. Have someone to talk with who is in or has been in the empty nest 2. Make a plan to get out of the house like going to a bookstore and joining a book club
In my groups and phone consultations I think you too would relate to the current cry: THEY
I cried weeks before showing up at my daughter
Natalie Caine, M.A. natalie@lifeintransition.org