Empty Nest

After spending 17 -- or, in some cases, 40 -- years living with your children, it can be quite an adjustment for you when they become independent adults (the kind that don't live in your home.) Here are five new opportunities after the kids are grown.

By Tom Scheve

It's perfectly normal to feel some sadness when the last of your children leave home. But, just like the kids, that moment also offers parents the promise of a new beginning. Here, a few tips for how to have fun after the kids are grown.

By Brion O'Connor

Children leaving home can change you just as much as bringing home your first child once did. But transitioning from full house to empty nest is a change that all parents know will eventually come. What are the stages of empty nest syndrome?

By Maria Trimarchi

If your marriage can make it through midnight feedings, random acts of vomit and teenage angst, then everything after that should be a cakewalk, right? Not if you believe stereotypes about the empty nest.

By Molly Edmonds

It can be sad when baby birds leave the nest to test out their wings, but what if they never leave at all -- or return after you thought they'd left for good?

By Molly Edmonds

So the kids are all gone and you finally have the house all to yourself. What to do with all that free time? And how can you make the transition with grace?

By Molly Edmonds

The last child's flown the nest and you, the parent, are free from unmade beds and teenage drama -- but also from sweet, sleepy faces and family dinners. Does an empty nest inspire relief or anxiety?

By Molly Edmonds