I’ve been an empty nester for a while, yet when Mary Jo described the first year of an empty nest it took me right back to that time. To our too-quiet house and dinner table, and the huge shift in life that I felt after taking our younger son off to school. One of the things Mary Jo said that I hadn’t realized was that in healthy marriages, dads will put off their own responses to an empty nest until moms finish going through their transition. Moms sometimes misunderstand this as detachment, but the husbands are just trying in their way to be supportive. What I found personally relatable was Mary Jo’s suggestion that a new empty nester take some time to reflect and think about what to do in this new stage of life, before jumping headfirst into things. In my case I took time for some reflection and came up with ideas for a music pursuit and this website.
Now it’s time for your comments: If you’re a new empty nester, are you going through some of what Mary Jo talks about? If you’ve been an empty nester for awhile, you are welcome to share some tips and wisdom. If you have questions about something Mary Jo brought up, leave a comment and she’ll be checking in with us through this conversation.
(Photo provided by Mary Jo Rapini)
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