Do you still feel engulfed by sadness and emptiness?

[girlchild34]

It is said that parents/couples never overcome the feeling of emptiness and that is sometimes accompanied by sadness. In my case, I would say that the severity now is not as bad as it was when the kids left. How can people who have never moved away from these feelings get help? How long did it take you to overcome?

[haidyl]

I would be lying if I said that I never feel empty inside, now that the children don't stay at home. It was worse at the beginning but now, I tend to feel empty at times, and wish that they came around quite often. This won't always be the case because of various commitments.

[cookielady]

I must admit every time I see those empty rooms I feel pangs of sadness. I've gone thru the "empty nest" twice now (my son dropped out of college and came home to live. we told him he needed to enroll at the community college here and work part time to stay. We thought he did enroll, but he was lying to us the whole time. We asked him to move out so he can figure his life out. Having a part time job and playing video games was not ok with us.), and it's not any easier. I do take comfort my daughter is now 3 hours away now instead of 16, but I still miss her an awful lot. And I really do miss my son. I cry over that boy and the decisions he has made and feel like an utter failure as a mom. I keep communication open with him and we do have him over for dinner every now and then. It just hurts that he's renting out a room and working full time and seems not to have any goals in life or a want to better himself thru education. everyone tells us he'll come around, he'll figure it out-I sure hope so.

[Indiana]

How can people who have never moved away from these feelings get help? How long did it take you to overcome?

There are support groups for this. It does help to be around like-minded people.


Volunteer at facilities where children are is another way.


I knew someone who did that along with creating an online persona in one of the largest chat forums on the internet, and inmmersed themselves in their new persona online.


Believe it or not, becoming a different person online does help with this. As long as you mix it up up with offline activities.