What would we do without our friends, especially after our children leave home? Friends are built-in support for talking together about our empty nest experiences and so much more. We can take advantage of the extra time we have by doing things to strengthen existing friendships, or reaching out to make new friends. Organizing a book club, game night, taking a class together, and traveling as a group are some ways to stay connected and be together in an enjoyable setting.

In my case, I’ve enjoyed friendships in a few great ways. For over 23 years I was part of a warm and supportive walking group of like-minded friends. While in recent years, we’ve become less available to walk regularly due to our travels or changes in health, we still walk when we can and we keep up a terrific tradition of sharing holiday and birthday lunches together. We have gone through our empty nest transition together and every life transition since then.

Something else I’ve loved doing over the years is going with a group of women a couple of times a year for a getaway with friends to the Texas Hill Country, a few hours from where I live in Houston. We gather in the country for walks, long talks, and shopping excursions with lunch in a nearby town. We visit Hill Country wineries and take pottery lessons together. We each bring and handle makings for a meal or appetizers, keeping things very simple. We return home “recharged”, and rested.

And of course, my husband and I go out more frequently with other couples than we did when children were at home. Since becoming empty nesters years ago, we also have a weekend and holiday tradition we love – we have friends over in the late afternoon to sit outside and visit together. We offer simple appetizers and beverages, and we love how uncomplicated and easy this way of entertaining has been for us. We’ll have anywhere from a couple of friends over, to 20+ friends, depending on what we feel up to and who is available. In fact, we’re able to enjoy our friends more this way than we did back when we were in the kitchen and busy putting a lot of effort, time and fuss into orchestrating and hosting a dinner party. We celebrate birthdays, July 4th, Easter, Labor Day, you name it, with these super easy gatherings. For a larger group we ask everyone to contribute an easy appetizer or a bottle of wine. But we always keep it very simple. Which makes us want to do it more often.

Now it’s time for your comments: What are some things you do with friends that you enjoy at this stage of life? Share an idea with us.

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