My Empty Nest is Back

This is a bittersweet time of year for me.  I’ve just taken my son back to school.  My house is quiet again.  I already miss having his presence in the house.  I’m also excited to have this time to myself again.  Yes, it’s bittersweet right now.  I’m sad and happy at the same time.  My empty nest is back again.

Since my son is in a boarding school and comes home at least once a month, this is a temporary status.  He’ll be in and out of the house for the next 9 months until he graduates and he moves home again next summer.  I do see him in between as well, but those day to day interactions change once he’s back at school.   I’ll be parenting from afar and that looks different than parenting him while he’s in my house.

One of the biggest changes is that I find I have more time to focus on other things in my life.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been focused on getting him ready to move back to school.  There’s lots of small parts that have to be done in this process and it takes a lot of time and energy to get him ready to move.  I’ve tried to leave it all to him, but that didn’t work out so well.  He’s 17 and couldn’t seem to grasp that he couldn’t do everything the last day before he moved.

So, a little bit of relief that the we actually got him moved back to school and now it’s time for a little break before I move forward again.  In the next week, I’m going to sleep a little extra and regroup before I begin to refocus on the other parts of my life.  I’m going to pause and take that deep breath before I jump into my next project.

Moving back and forth between my son being home and the empty nest is a bit different from your child moving out for good.  It has it’s own challenges.  In this instance, I know it’s temporary.  I know he’ll be home again in a few weeks and this cycle will continue over and over until he comes home for the summer.  Every time he leaves, I’ll have more time to devote to other things.  For me that means offering more sessions and developing new programs.

If you’ve been thinking about having a session or two with me, then now’s a great time to do that .  I’m opening up a few new spots as my schedule is shifting and I’m ready to work with more people.  Sessions can be online or in person.

Since I started offering Life Mentoring at the beginning of summer, I’ve found joy in helping others attain meaningful life change.  Change looks different for each of us, but it comes down to taking those small steps and moving forward a little at a time to achieve the change that you seek.  My change has been huge this week.  I’m back to empty nest status.  Your change can be huge too.  You just have to take that first step forward.