Our last child went off to college this past week. We've taken kids to college enough that most of it was decidedly routine - pack to leave, drive there, unpack, offer my standard reminder about how there are a lot of people in the world that aren't so nice, tell them to keep their name out of the newspaper, and say good-bye.
What was decidedly unroutine about it, however, was arriving back at home to accept the new reality of an empty nest. The house that was once just big enough is now bigger and quieter than it was meant to be. It's hard to comprehend how it got to be like that.
To help cope with the unofficial end to two decades of child-raising, I keep reminding myself about what a success it has been. My kids are the best. There is absolutely no doubt that they are going to make major positive contributions to society. As far as parenting goes, something must have been done right.
One emotion that I didn't expect to have is that of feeling abandoned. The past 23 years have been spent raising children into adults who are going to improve civilization. This has been done with a fair amount of personal and financial sacrifice - I mean, time and money could have been spent on other things. So now, civilization, where is my parade? In the words of Carl Spackler of Caddyshack, "How about a little something, you know, for the effort!?"
One other thing I'm getting used to is the time. It suddenly seems like there's a lot more time to do things. I suppose this is because there just isn't as much to occupy my mind without kids around. This is something I didn't really expect, but frankly, it's also something it won't take me long to get used to.
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