Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Before.......

After.......

 

As of last Saturday Hubs and I are empty nesters.
Well sort of.
Our youngest child went off to college that day for the first time.

#2 Son couldn't leave this two-bit, provincial town fast enough!
Yes, he has been ready to move on socially and academically for years.
He found his high school and this town stifling.

I hated to tell him that the town his college is in is even smaller and may be more stifling. lol
But then again, within the University will be larger opportunities for growth and people who haven't lived here their entire lives and he will find his niche and blossom.
And if he doesn't find it there, there are a myriad of other schools he can try on.

While we are not truly empty nesters yet, since our son will be back living here during school breaks, this "last child out of the nest" event has signaled the end of our active childrearing days, and has ushered in a new phase in our lives.
The "let's get nekkid & drink anytime we want and carry on like kids if we want" phase.

We do still have one dog left so we can't fully be free and just pick up and go, travel, etc. anytime we want yet.  But she's old and not looking real well so we are close. ;-)

I waited to talk about sending our last child off into the world for a bit instead of jumping right on this as a blog post earlier this week.
Because from everything I've ever heard about how mothers react to this event, I really didn't feel anything that fit into the stereotypical reaction.

I've always heard and seen that mothers, in particular, greet this new phase of life, with dread and gloom.  Many women sink into deep depression when their last kid leaves home.
Being a stay-at-home mom or a working mom, neither seem to matter in regard to a mom's reaction to not having children in the house anymore.

My own mother had a very difficult time when I left home to go to college.  Of course she had other "things" going on in her life that also led to her depression and her suicide attempt in the Fall just after I left home.
Most mom's don't resort to attempting to end their lives when their children fly the coop, but I have seen and heard that most moms do have some level of emotional crisis when this empty nest event occurs.

So I waited for the letdown to happen this week.
I waited for my eyes to mist up as I gazed into #2 son's bedroom or thought of something that reminded me of him.

And it never came.

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids!
And it does seem strange to not have kids in my house after the last 23 years of yelling at, cuddling, picking up after, cooking for and washing their piles of dirty clothes.

But I just didn't see the end of this phase of my life as something to dread and mourn over.

Maybe I am just strange......I don't know really.

Sure, I think about them a lot and when certain things happen or I see something, it makes me think about one or more of them.
But I never burst into tears at some insignificant moment, or think I no longer have a purpose in life.
Well at least so far.....

All I feel is excitement really.
Excitement for my kids being "out there" in the world and excited for all the opportunities they may have and excited to see how they craft their own lives now with the tools, that hopefully, their parents helped them to develop in their formative years.
I'm excited for them to realize their own dreams and potential.

And excited for myself, for what new experiences await me with all this new claimed free time to myself.


But first, there is the issue of detritus.
The detritus of my youngest son's old life as manifested in his now vacant bedroom.

His room doesn't look so bad/filthy on the surface but you can't see all the crap under his bed or in his closet.

And on Sunday I began digging out his old room in preparation for a thorough cleaning and fumigating.

Now remember, this is the child that was hoarding a collection of plastic spoons from the school cafeteria, for no reason other than he was bored so he started taking spoons home.

During my initial survey of the filth in his room, I found this......

Oh Goody!
A new collection!!

8 containers of deodorant and/or body sprays, some with product still in them, and one not even opened yet.
I wonder how many more will be unearthed in the coming weeks?

Stay tuned.........



Sluggy-so over child rearing(& dog wrangling too)