Tag: no kids

There’s a growing epidemic spreading its way across the nation with a bullseye aimed directly on couples whose kids have flown the coop.

No, it’s not health issues, retirement money worries, or employment challenges.

It’s divorce.

"The National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University reports that divorce rates for couples over 50 years old have more than doubled in recent years.

More than doubled.

If you're a new empty nester, know that what you’re going through is a challenging transition. My heart goes out to you because I’ve been there. As parents, we need to honor the significance of the sacred task we spent the last two decades doing, and it is entirely appropriate that there would be some sorrow at its close. There will be a time of adjustment, and that period will be different for everyone. Here are five things you can expect as you adjust to the empty nest.

1. Fluctuating emotions. Intellectually, you can probably acknowledge that it was time for your kids to move beyond the nest.

Have you ever gone on a "Marriage Vacation" to re-energize your intimacy, friendship and connection? We highly recommend them, and if you have children we suggest that you really try to carve out a "No Kids Marriage Vacation."

When my husband, Patrick, first suggested that we leave our children and go to Hawaii for five nights without them I protested loudly, "If you think I am the kind of mother that would leave her children for that long, you do not know me very well." Yes, it is true. I was furious that my husband invited me to go to Hawaii with him.

One of the primary reasons people get divorced, unlike what we see in the movies, is that they just grow apart. Husband or wife goes to work; the other person either goes to work or cares for the children. They live separate lives and one day look across the table and don’t even know each other any more. Other relationships have developed at work or the gym that appear even closer than the relationship with their own spouse. How did this happen? Where did the years go?

We all have busy lives. Whether the husband or wife works outside the home or one is at home caring for children or an elderly parent, every minute of every day can be committed to just "living."