Go Ask Mom

Amanda Lamb: And then there were four ...

Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to have my daughters home for at least part of the summer, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out that going from empty nesting to daily parenting again is a big change.

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Go Ask Mom: Amanda Lamb with her girls
By
Amanda Lamb
, WRAL reporter

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very excited to have my daughters home for at least part of the summer, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that going from empty nesting to daily parenting again is a big change.

As empty nesters, we have a routine that doesn’t involve a specific dinner time or even a specific meal. We kind of operate on the fly, depending on what each of us has going on with work and with our side-hustles on that particular day. More often, we meet after dinner or after our respective meetings on our his and her couches to take in an episode of the most recent show we’re streaming.

As far as groceries go, sometimes we have them, sometimes we run low. On the low days, there is a quick swing by the grocery store after the gym for milk or something we can throw together for dinner. The bottom line is that everything is more organic now without the pressure to have a delineated family schedule.

Families, however, do not operate well in an undefined space. Meals, laundry, grocery shopping –all must take place in an organized fashion to keep a household afloat when more than two members live together.

So, it will be an adjustment. Our youngest daughter will be home most of the summer working. Our oldest daughter will be moving to New York for a job about halfway through the summer. For a period of time, beginning this week, we will have one or both daughters at home.

I have missed them more than I could have imagined and will welcome the disruption in our empty-nester life, the hurricane-like chaos that even adult children can bring to the mix.

The tradeoff is that as the quiet, clean spaces morph into loud and messy territories, family life with all its joys and obstacles begins anew. You see, we are only borrowing them from the world now; once they are grown, they are not ours to keep. So, if I can borrow them for a day, a week, a month, a summer, I will take it because the quiet will return, and when it does so will the longing for the beautiful chaos to begin again.

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