Peeking At The Empty Nest

We've seen the future and it's going to be OK. Yesterday, my husband and I had to spend all day (from 7:00 am until 9:00 pm) out of the house while our floors were being refinished. We hadn't made many plans but had a few ideas. At first glance, it looked like a long, boring day. It turned out really nice. We ate, we shopped, we talked, we read, sometimes we bickered but all in all, we rediscovered what it was like before we had kids...but better. (We have a little more money now.)

Sometimes I worry about what our life will be like after our daughter leaves for college. So much of our life is wrapped up in our kids that it's hard to imagine or plan for life when they're not around. I see other parents whose lives are even more wrapped up in their kids. For instance, the mom whose children are so overscheduled and who are involved in so many sports that she never talks to me, she mainly just whines at me. I wonder what they'll do when their kids aren't around. (My guess is that they'll travel to their kids' colleges and watch them play collegiate sports.) Since our kids don't play sports at high levels, this isn't a likely scenario for us. Sure, we'll go and visit them, but I'm sure we'll mostly leave them alone and let them experience the joy of life without us.

So this leaves the two us. Back where we started, but only better. We won't worry about how many or what kinds of kids we'll have. We won't stress out over climbing corporate ladders and trying to prove our worth or moving forward on our career paths. We won't dream about the nice home that we'll live in once we've worked hard to earn it - we'll be living in it. Our dreams will be about travel and new experiences now that we're older and wiser. Sure there will be new challenges like health and aging but we'll meet these challenges from a new perspective, knowing that we've weathered a few storms along the way.