Well, for the first time in 15 years all of my kids will be in school and I will have time for myself. My littlest started K today, my daughter is in 5th, and my oldest is in 10th. But I was so sad and felt so alone. My H thought I was nuts. He said I should be happy to have time to myself. I am happy to a degree but I miss them. They have been my little rocks through all of this crap and I feel lost and lonely without them. I feel like another stage of my life has just begun. What will I do when they go off to college? Lord help me then if I am this emotional now.
Take Care, Carol~
This message has been edited by pizzalady on Mar 7, 2007 2:13 PM
I couldn't imagine my two oldest kids leaving for college at the time they were leaving for kindergarten.
When they got to that age, it was fine. Sounds like your oldest is close.
Maybe you could re-discover something you liked to do prior to kids that you have not had time for since they were born?
I sent my youngest off to his first day of high school today. Seems like yesterday it was kindergarten. The affair started when he was just in 2nd grade.
This message has been edited by Red--Wolf on Sep 2, 2005 5:13 AM
>>But I was so sad and felt so alone. My H thought I was nuts. He said I should be happy to have time to myself<<
What's up with people who think they know so much that they know how you ought to feel in any given situation?
Very weird.
These days, my antennae start twitching when someone tells me how I should feel. I'm a little oversensitive to that kind of thing. I be like "Oh yeah, buttmunch? Well, you're waaaaay out of line. Now get back on the other side of the emotional boundary that separates you from me, before I open up this can of emotional whoop ass on your sorry ass". And then if I'm feeling really perverse, I be like "you should feel ashamed of yoursef".
Anyway. It's hard when the kids go back to school. I felt a little sad and lonely my ownself.
I know what you are feeling. I felt it everytime one of my children started school. The first one was the toughest for me, but I was sad when the other two started school as well.
Our oldest is a senior this year. I usually have a short period of "back to school blues" when school starts. But this year it hit me harder because it seems the years with him have just flown by.
One thing I always did to get past the empty house period was get involved in the school. Not necessarily so I was there to smother my kids, but because the schools can always use volunteers to help. It gave me a chance to meet their friends and to really get to know their teachers.
LOL. My Marine graduated from boot camp really close to the 14th anniversary of his first day of kindergarten. (He's 19 now.) While sitting in the stands with the other family members, I flashed back to the kindergarten days when I'd be standing outside school with the "other moms" waiting for kids.
I can say with certainty that I have always looked forward to these days. I'm glad each time one kid makes the successful transition to the next phase or level of his own life. I certainly don't envy you, Carol, dealing with 20 consecutive years of teenagers. Ten will be quite enough for me.
Of course, I think dads may be biologically and/or societally programmed to want to push kids out of the nest. Especially sons. We'll see in a couple of years, though. I am especially close with my younger son, who still lives with me. I may have an empty-nest meltdown when he leaves in three years.
<<I be like "Oh yeah, buttmunch? Well, you're waaaaay out of line. Now get back on the other side of the emotional boundary that separates you from me, before I open up this can of emotional whoop ass on your sorry ass". And then if I'm feeling really perverse, I be like "you should feel ashamed of yoursef".>>
Oh my gosh, Quinn! I died laughing when I read this. You totally cracked me up
Thank you everyone for sharing your stories with me and for all the responses. You made me feel a lot better. You guys are the best!
Quinn,
You should feel very proud of your feelings.
(ducking to the other side of the emotional boundary line that separates me from the opening can of emotional whoop ass that might be approaching my sorry ass.)
May not work but...