Dealing With Empty Nest Gifts

"I'm sorry your son Billy ran away, but there's not much we can do being that he's thirty-four."

"I'm all for pushing them out of the nest, but maybe next time we could wait till they hatch."

'Think about it guys: We're fed and sheltered, why would we ever think about leaving the nest?'

"Your mother and I think it's time you got a place of your own. We'd like a little time alone before we die."

"No, I want to know the meaning of never calling your mother."

"The house doesn't seem big because the kids are gone - it seems big because we've shrunk so much."

"We used to entertain a great deal."

"We've waited twenty-five years to make this trip, and we're certainly not interested in getting there in any six and a half hours."

'Honey...you're spoiling that child.'

I think it's time he left home.'

"Well that's the last of our offspring gone - let battle commence."

The kids called. They'll be home in five. Our week alone flashed by. It was like getting to know you all over again. I'm starving! Anyone call? I need the computer! Where's the remote? What's your name again?

Empty Nester Apple Picking - "Not THAT one, you idiot!"

"The nest may be empty, but our drinks are full."

"I'm so sorry that I screamed...I had a terrible dream: the kids had to leave college and live with us again...Oh, Ed, it was horrible!"

I'm here to update your census form. Since you mailed the form in, have any of your children moved back in with you?

"No need to push, Mother—I'm going."

"Remember, son, no matter what happens to you, we intend to always keep your room at home exactly as it is right now...empty."

"I didn't think you'd still be here at thirty."

'You let me out. What I do when I'm out is my business.'

"They grow up so fast."

'Do you think Mum and Dad are trying to keep an eye on us, by enroling on the same university course as us, Colin?'

"We're taking separate vacations this year."

"The joy of the house to myself"

'Now that you have a job, Tom, Dad and I are turning your room into a condo!'

"He insists he can't leave until he has a full-time job."

"Since he retired, he hasn't quite figured out what to do with himself!"

The Old Woman in the shoe questions her decision to spend her empty-nest years in a condo at a ski resort.'

"I suppose it's 'Empty Nest Syndrome', doctor. . . ever since Amber left for college I've felt so empty!"

'By the time I was your age , I'd already run away from home TWICE!'

"Kids in college? Well, won't it be nice to have them home?"

'Huh! Nobody home!'

'Well! Another near miss! Remind me not to listen to you next time you say it's okay to move in downstairs from a young family and that's not the reason the place was so cheap!'

"Is it wrong that I miss the dog more than the kids?"

"I've been a mess since Jake left for college, so now we have a boy who comes in a couple of times a week to leave wet towels all over and challenge everything I say."