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Marilyn, a Wisdom of the Wounded reader wrote to us and shared this unique story of a nest that isn’t quite empty but still requires an adjustment:

I have four children; three of them left the house within 13 months. My daughter married in 2015…that wasn’t so bad, just an adjustment because I still had my three boys at home. Thirteen months later two of my sons left for basic training for the Navy. THAT was an adjustment. It was as if the “life” left my house. My remaining son was just as lost without them because he has a mental disability. My husband and I grieved for a few weeks. We would be fine, and then we’d be sobbing. It took me days to go into their bedrooms. It was too hard. But we moved on and “changed” our roles as parents. It took some time but we got there.

My advice to parents struggling with an empty nest: just let yourself grieve and go with it. It’s a new season in life and a transition. We never want our “babies” to grow up and leave, but that is our job…to raise them so they will leave and move on with their lives.

To help us in this transition time, we started to become involved in hobbies again—things we couldn’t do while raising a family. Now ten years later we have new roles of caring for elderly parents. So the hobbies are on the back burner again.

Enjoy each season in life. This too shall pass.