Anyone else quite enjoy the Empty Nest?

[hoardingwealth]

Love my kids to bits. Obviously! But I’m quite enjoying this next stage, where they have moved out and are making their own lives. The house is quiet, peaceful, tidy. There are no school runs or jobs that come with having kids at home. I’m sitting here now, watching a documentary with wine, knowing that no one needs picking up from anywhere. I’m enjoying this peaceful phase of life. Anyone else?

Me

oh, me me me

He he he

We now have a guest bedroom and a dressing room 😂

Me too
I miss them, but instagrams of their nights out is enough!!
Im absolutely loving the peace

Oh God I do love it. 😆. I do love Dd but yeah I was ready for her to leave home. She still has a bedroom full of clutter and I can’t do anything about it for just over another year in case she ends up moving back home then. But if she doesn’t come home then I’m packing it all up and using her massive wardrobe 😆

I sometimes wonder how we got through the 20 years of bedlam 😂

Oh I sympathise! My daughter moved to Australia 2 years ago, and if you’d looked at her room on the day she left, you’d think she’d just popped to the corner shop! Absolute shit tip. I’ve tidied it up, but now I’m storing so much stuff!

When they all come back, it’s absolutely lovely, but I struggle. I honestly don’t know how I ever managed!!
and I agree it was bedlam

Me. I live on my own.
So many people think I’m a sad creature who needs someone to look after to be fulfilled.

I love it too. So quiet and peaceful and tidy. And there’s food in the fridge - it hasn’t a
l disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I love having plenty of space on the drive for my car & being able to get out of my car instead of squeezing out! And I don't miss playing musical cars when I want to go out 🙂

It’s a weird thing isn’t it? I love my kids to bits and I wouldn’t change anything. However, I never hear from either of them, it is always me making the first contact. I could have saved my body from a lot of harm and my bank balance from a lot of disruption if I just hadn’t had any children at all. Obviously, I would never want to change anything now. But it is certainly thought provoking.

I was devastated when dd1 moved away to uni in 2022. But I did get used to more time to myself quite quickly. Now it's an adjustment when she comes home 😊. So it's just OH, me & dd2 for now. I expect dd2 will fly the nest next year & I don't know how I'll be then

I didn't enjoy it at first but over time I've got used to the peace and quiet and I love it now. Still feels a bit weird cooking for just DH and I when I've spent the last 30 odd years cooking for a family of 7! I still make too much and have leftovers in the fridge 😂 luckily our adult sons pop in quite often and are always pleased to find some lasagne or beef stew or chicken curry in the fridge to polish off!

I miss mine being at home tbh. I liked all the bustle and friends round etc.

Eldest at uni, so not quite an empty nest yet, but I secretly love it when he’s not here.

House is tidy when I go out and still tidy when I come back and no last minute shopping lists and washing demands or chauffeuring either.

Me! The peace and quiet is wonderful. I live alone and I have a whole bunch of friends who take pitty on me. No, I love being here!

YANBU. My 2 left home at the same time (both went to Uni at the same time as one had a gap year,) and the house was so empty and quiet, and I felt bereft. I missed them terribly to be honest. I LOVED them coming home for Christmas, and then Easter.

But it passed after a while, (a year,) and I got more and more used to the peace and quiet, and having my own bedroom LOL!!! I LOVE it when DH is at work and I have the house to myself.

I would find it very hard to have them living here now, and I think they would find it hard too, after over a decade of independence.

wow, I can’t imagine feeling like this. I’m dreading them going - I worry constantly how sad I’m going to feel. I love their company so much and we do so much together, cooking, movies etc.

Did you worry and were surprised by feeling this happy when you did?

They take pity on you? Ha ha, I bet they're jealous really! 😆

I have a few friends who still have 2 or 3 adult children living at home, and a few (children) are in their mid 30s! Some have never left, and some have left and come back. A few times over.

I know it's hard for some young people to 'launch' and be independent, but I would HATE that. About half a dozen people I know are in their late 50s to early/mid 60s, and started having kids at 22-25, and they still have at least one DC at home! They wait on them hand and foot, and don't get much financial contribution. Even the few who don't have any still at home, spend half their spare time babysitting/looking after grandchildren while the adult children are at work.

I definitely pity all of them! ^

Yes i love it too op.
Im 40 this december, and im enjoying all my freedom now.
Clean tidy home just me now peacefull blissfull.
Nothing in this world would make me go back to the baby stage or school years.

Love the kids but love them so much more now they don’t live here.

I’ve just turned 40 and have a one year old. I am in awe and envious of the 40 year old empty nester!

We actually have DD1 here more than we ever have and she is 20. Before she turned 18 she went 40 per cent or so of the time to her Dads. Now she is with us all the time. DD2 has gone off to uni and the step sons are here half the time-but it used to be the case that DH and I pretty much had every other weekend to ourselves and how we loved it! I miss it now and I don’t see DD1 leaving home any time soon, plus we will have DD2 home for summer shortly and of course the DSS’s as normal. No time to ourselves at all any more :(

Did you worry and were surprised by feeling this happy when you did?

I dreaded DD going to uni and was bereft when she went. But you get used to it, then it becomes normal ... and enjoyable.

I love her being home but she is such a whirlwind of a human - so extrovert and sociable and busy!

I wouldn't be happy if she moved to Australia or never contacted me though.