PenPenWrites

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© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

recent posts

© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

Category: empty nests

  • Empty Nesting: How do we know when we’re over the loss?

    We all have our markers for recognizing that our children have grown up and left the nest–taken that giant step into independence. I don't mean when they leave for college, although that's usually the first most common step along the way. I mean a way of noting that great big void in our lives. In…

  • Unempty Nest: They’re back. You are not alone.

    There are mixed emotions over having your grown child–a recent college grad–move back home. Others are going through it, too.

  • Empty Nesting: We’re in the majority now

    We are not just our parents all over again. We rule. The majority of families in the U.S. today do not have young children at home, according to a the most recent population survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Compare that with our parents' generation: In the early 1960s, almost 60 percent of families had…

  • Re-Nesting: It’s hard on the grown kids, too

    We all talk about how hard it is on us when the kids move back home. And it is. The loss of privacy. The noise. The eating habits. The hours they keep. But here's a reminder that it's hard on them, too. These are words of self-awareness written to give the grown children some perspective:…

  • Money Matters: The costs of re-nesting

    We are living through difficult times–kids  moving back home not just because they're out of college and haven't figured out what they'll do. It's more serious now: Our grown children are losing their jobs, or we're losing ours. Consolidated households are one answer. On her site, Linda Pogue  blogs about some of the hidden costs…

  • Re-Nesting: Moving home–to help us out

    Here's a twist on refilling the empty nest. In these tough economic times, families are piling in together to cut costs, but it isn't always kids moving back to have mom and dad help them out. The kids may move back in to help out with the parent's rent. Here's the recent story: "Last year,…

  • Empty Nesting: The honeymoon’s over when the kids come home again

    No less a source than Newsweek is tackling the empty nest syndrome. They start off with this good-news phenomenon: "Rather than feeling bereft without kids, many couples find themselves swept up in what's commonly known as a second honeymoon after their kids leave. There's even scientific backing for the notion that a marriage gets a…

  • De-Nested: When adult kids move back home, politeness is strained.

    I'm a sucker for a new phrase, especially when it captures the definition of the moment. Here's my most recent find: Economy of gratitude. It refers to the breakdown in the way we treat each other–we being the parents and ourr adult children who have moved back into the family nest. It's when family members…

  • Money Matters: Health insurance for your grown kids is not an indulgence

    Paterfamilias and I had dinner with friends the other night–friends whose oldest child is about to graduate from college. They are recovering from the $50,000 a year it's been costing them and looking forward to his independence, particularly his financial independence. He doesn't, of course, know exactly what he wants to do. He's hoping to…

  • Empty Nesters: Filling the adult child’s nest–with you

    Lots of self-help tips for parents of grown children center on what to do when the adult kids move back to the family home. But now there's a new trend: The U.S. Census reports that there is a 75 percent increase in parents under the age of 65 who are now living with their adult…