Yesterday evening

After dinner, Mr E and I biked into town and sat down for a few drinks. We had a great spot…

Sometimes, even now with the kids all grown, we feel like we need to be around at home for them when they come home or we need to include them in all activities or at least ask them if they want to come with us. But with one son in Portugal and one daughter who had plans of her own on Saturday evening, we figured we should just do something too and not be so stuck to the house all the time. Now that we are approaching the empty nest phase we really should allow ourselves many more spontaneous little outings like this. In fairness, it was never the kids holding us back – it was us.

Granted, we’ve done plenty of things without the kids, especially in recent years, but somehow we may not do quite as much as we could because in the back of our minds they are always very much present and we are invested in what they’re doing and when they’ll be home (and do we need to be home?) and the constant day-to-day consideration of them. Yes, at 22 and 19 they are quite independent and have been for a while but even so, there is still that bit of daily consideration that has been second nature to us. The time is now coming that we can just do and plan things without considering them. Now, except for snippets, we are not included in our son’s day-to-day anymore and we only have one kid left to consider. How weird it will feel when my daughter too will fly the coop!

Sure, it’s nice to be more free of having to consider the kids but the huge down side is that I’ll miss them… terribly… It’s all part of the process of letting go, I guess.