A Small Taste of the Empty Nest

And how to prepare for the real one that will inevitably come.

With all three kids gone for a week at summer camp, my wife and I got to experience an empty nest. We’ve gone away together before without the kids, but had never remained at home for so long without at least one of our children sleeping in the same house.

I didn’t like it.

Don’t get me wrong. My wife and I didn’t sit around and mope. We didn’t stare longingly out of the windows, waiting for the kids to come strolling up from the horizon. We had fun. I had planned some nice dinners out. We watched a few movies.

But everything felt a little dim. And then it hit me.

Is this the type of life we would be living normally if kids were not in the picture? Privileged, blessed, and pleasant, for sure. But hollow. No gravitas. Everything we had constructed would be made of tissue paper, and the slightest wind would blow it away, leaving no trace of our existence.

Recently, this graphic made the rounds on social media: