Empty Nest, Strategies to Help Your Kids Take Flight

When my son was a toddler I could not imagine him in college. But childhood is funny, the days are endless yet the years fly by. It’s true, what you’ve heard: Life happens in a blink as you raise your kids.My son is in college now. We drop him off at the curb of the airport and he gets himself through security and home to his dorm room 3,000 miles away! Not bad for a kid I once spoon-fed.Preparing for motherhood there are lots of books to help you out. Of course I read What to Expect When You Are Expecting cover to cover. But getting ready for the empty nest is a transition we don’t often recognize. We know this phase is coming but we don’t seem to invest as much time getting ready. There are no diapers to buy or rooms to prepare. In fact the opposite is true. We find big holes in our lives. What to do? There is some help.Empty Nest, Strategies To Help Your Kids Take Flight By Marci Seither is a book that speaks to this need of how to help launch your children into adulthood. Marci will have you laughing as she offers some ideas for how the whole family can make this transition with grace.This change in family dynamics is an important one to address. It may seem easier to just let the whirlwind of it wash over you and come out the other side wondering what the heck happened. But it might be better to take a look at what’s happening. Empty Nest offers some good ideas.Many go through the college process and the book addresses those stressors. But there are also chapters on working through the process of a child who wants to go into the military. And what about the kids that are left at home? Marci takes a chapter on this topic and how important it is to look at the whole family not just how you as a parent are handling this change.Marci addresses the needs of couples to change at this point in family life as well. And she also takes a chapter to address the needs of the single parent whose needs are very different.Empty Nest looks at all the angles of kids launching into adulthood. It’s well thought out and presented with humor and grace. Told through story and interviews the books reads like a chat with a good friend rather than a self-help book. If you are heading into this transition in your family I recommend you pick up a copy.