In these days of cell phones, emails and instant messages, can the nest really be empty?
Baby boomers, remember when we were in college? If your parents heard from you once a month, they were lucky. Today with multiple ways of staying in contact, we have to wonder, “Is the nest really empty?”
We took our one and only child to college this week. I ended up doing most of the packing myself. I gave her a cooler to sort through her bathroom of beauty products and came up an hour later to find her with a green mask on her face and marveling over all the great earrings she forgot she had! That’s because inspite of three earring holders she usually tosses the ones she takes off into the back of the drawer.
It was faster for me to pack for her!
I too found lots of things in her room I’d been missing – mostly silverware! I guess I really did have a 12 piece setting! I’d begun to think I’d only bought an 8 piece set!
We loaded up her car and ours and made the two hour drive to Western Carolina University. The kids starting college now are the Millennials. 81 million young Americans born after 1982.
An article in my sorority’s magazine, ‘The Angelos’ said, “they’ve never watched TV without a remote, can’t remember a world without cell phones and think first of their computers when they hear the word ‘virus’. Barbie always had a job, spam and cookies are not necessarily food and popcorn is always cooked in a microwave.”
Raised by their baby boomer parents who doted on them these kids were given every opportunity. They grew up feeling wanted and valued by parents who were heavily involved in their lives – even when they went off to college, which the group began doing in 2000.
The Boomers and Milleniums are tight. Lucky for us all there are so many ways to keep in touch!
When I went off to college I got a weekly letter from my mom and sometimes a care package to which she would add mail that came for me at home. My dad would call occasionally from work, usually when I needed airline reservations to fly home for breaks. (He worked for United Airlines.)
John and I were still in the car on our way home from Western when Brittany called the first time. There was an answering machine message on our phone when we got home. The next morning John said he had heard from her again. I asked if she had called and he sheepishly said, “I IM’d her.” (This from someone who’s always believed IMing corrupted computers!)
She had mail here when we got home. We scanned it and emailed it to her, then I tossed the hard copies in a basket in case she wants to touch it when she comes home.
Well, I’d better get back to cleaning her room. I thought it would be a treat to have it clean for longer then five minutes. And I don’t really mind – I’ve already found two pair of earrings and a cute shirt she left that I’m going to borrow! 
Nancy Geiger and her husband are empty nesters with their daughter Brittany (their only child) now a junior at college. When she left home Nancy started writing a monthly column for their local weekly paper about parenting a college student long distance. After 17 years as a travel agent for American Express, Nancy decided to commit herself to freelance writing and starting an online store, 2 blogs, a website and LOTS of volunteering! She even just published a cookbook called A Brides Cookbook or surviving the First Year. http://abridescookbook.com
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