I just posted about not becoming an emptynester till after 60 and DH 67. What is the age you will or did become an emptynester at? Did this change your routine or free you up to do new things if you became an emptynester? I just wonder what the average age is and how it affected people. My friends are just becoming emptynesters and I feel a little left behind because I do not have time to do things with them, go back to school or indulge in things like travel or more quilting. Overal I do not mind as we choose for this life and I am happy to have my children but I feel like my friends are going on a different path and I am not sharing in that experience.

47

I am 58 and just became a total empty nester this year. I hate it!! I miss the kids coming and going and even though they stop in often it is just to quiet. I got laid off from my job two years ago so just find myself useless and unneeded right now. Hubby is still working, laid back and a homebody. I am even having a hard time sewing lately!! Give me a kick in the rear!! Enjoy your children! They grow up way to fast.

LOL I am seeing that right now. Many of my friends that are new emptynesters are in their early late 40 ies and 50 ies. I am 47 but no emptynest in sight for many years. It just hit me that I am on a very different path.

45

I will be 43 when my only child goes to college.

Odly enough I can find myself useless too. I think some of my children getting married has been a bittersweet. They do not need me any more. Fortunately for me I have a nest full to keep me busy. Yes, I am enjoying them everyday. When I wake up they put a smile on my face. I also find I enjoy the actual physical caring for younger children a lot.

42

I was fairly young..........only 40. I love the time for me and hubby.

41, and I missed my son so much. He is fun to be around. We had planned another child or two, but my husband died suddenly when our son was 2 yrs, 5 mos. (I was 25.)

I was an empty nester at 52, but have found I'll never stop being an on-call mom. :lol:

Jan in VA

I was 50. But, don't feel bad. My mom had my brother when she was 40. For the first time ever she is alone and she is 73. There have been divorced kids and grandkids living with her at various times. My dad passed away 3 years ago. My brother moved out last week. My mom doesn't like it at all.
Me, I love it. I love it when they visit and love it when they go home to their own happy homes.

52 and it was like being freed from jail.

I agree them getting married was the hardest part for me. When my son told me he was getting married I cried for days, and listened to May the circle be unbroken over and over. Now he is happy with 4 kids but he does live almost 500 miles away.

I'm 42 and Hubby is 47, our son is 21 still lives at home with no plans of moving out anytime soon, but that is Okay, son and Hubby are best friends and do a lot of stuff together. (once in awhile I wish for some time alone with Hubby and tell him so. then we'll go do something together), but I also get my time for what I enjoy!!!! :D :D

49 when the last one left for college, but I don't consider that an empty nester. I kept the rooms the same for my children until they were married or at least on their own, so I'll say 51 when the last one left college and joined the Marine Corps. I didn't mind it. We raise our children to become independent adults and move out. Life is constantly changing.

Let's see...I've got kids in high school and I'll be at least 62 when my youngest graduates from college. My YOUNGER brother has a grandchild older than my youngest daughter. In fact, he was a grandfather at a younger age than I became a parent. But I love it this way and I'm sure that having kids at a late age keeps me young. We established our careers, bought our house, and traveled before we had children and it worked for us but everybody is different. I would't change a thing.

I was 39, and have enjoyed about every minute of it since they left. As a single mom most of their lives (had 3), I was ready to do something for me. I adore my grandbabies, and all three waited till I was 45 to make me a grammie, now I have 7 of those precious little ones. And I so have time for my DH and quilting.

And my children have become a college professor(ID), nurse(SD) and a Diesel mechanic in Alaska. So very proud of them and where they have gone.

So the empty nest thing didn't get to me much..........I was busy with finishing my degree, working and traveling and keepin my DH happy (and of course sewing and quilting).

I was 42 whe my youngers moved out. I had free time to do as I pleased for a short time. Then the grandchildren came, work and older parents, seems I have less time than before.

Oh heart breaking. ))))hugs((((( I am glad your son is such a comfort to you.

44, 50 & 64. Sometimes the nest fills up again.

35 and 37, I was an early starter, and my kids both left at 16 - one to go to technical college, and when she finished there, she decided to live in the area as she got her own flat, the other worked as a live in mother's help, then left and went to the USA. Sadly I haven't seen her since.

My youngest will leave for college when I'm 58. I quit my job last fall due to a nasty office manager and a boss wouldn't do anything about it. I spent 8 months at home before i found a part time job again. My son is in high school and has a part time job so he isn't home much. There I sat with too much time on my hands. I felt useless too. My new job helps and I was lucky to get it. Employers don't want to hire an older worker. Join a quilt guild or volunteer at church or a day care center or a nursing home. There are things to do out there and the benefits to you are not always money but self esteme, and that makes a big difference.

Around the age of 48 we WERE emptynesters for a year or so, then foster daughter as a freshman in highschool. She is now in collage and son has been back home for the last 3 years or so. (He is now 30, and no $ to move back out).
Yes we did things a bit different, cooked together, did South Beach diet together and got more active; hikeing and snowshoeing.

50

54 and love it. I wish my one duaghter lived closer, but she married in NY and lives on Long Island. I had enjoyed many trips there til I went to work for the Census Bureau. Will get there again this fall sometime. Hopefully. Maybe I will keep the puppy til Oct and take off then with it.

I was 49 and I counted the days until my last son closed on his house ...I enjoy having my house stay clean for longer than 10 minutes and the utilities are cut in 1/2. I dont have to worry about a decent dinner each night. Both my sons live within 5 miles of us so we see them both often, they still feel the need to grocery shop in my basement.
I dont miss all the noise and car shuffling....

When the kids grow up enough to be on their own. We raised our kids to be self sufficient, and since they are, we knew we did a good job.
We became empty nesters when the "baby" turned 18 and instead of going to college, went into the Navy. We knew we had done a good job with them, now it was our time together, which turned out to be way too short.
Now I'm enjoying my quiet home, volunteering 1 to 3 times a week and seeing my long time club members twice a month. Sewing, yard work and hobbies take a great deal of time. Quiet time reading with a cat on my lap is precious.

40

I had seven years between my middle child and my youngest as I lost a child in between them. It was like having two families. The youngest one has gone to the city for college now. It's too quiet sometimes but I am so over the teenage years so in a way it's a relief to be done with that but I do miss her humor and her hugs. I have time to travel now and can sew and quilt at all hours of the day or night if I feel like it. I wish they were all a little closer though so we could at least have weekends together once in a while or dinner out in the middle of the week or whatever. Two of them are about 5 hours drive from me and of course one is Washington State. My house is too big now so I am considering foster parenting. There are lots of hurt and broken kids who need love and attention out there. I'm going to wait until spring to make a decision, that way I'll be sure it's what I want before I get involved. I am 52.

I'm 56 and haven't yet experienced an empty nest. I'm sure there will be parts of it that I like and probably somethings I won't like. I do enjoy time alone to read, quilt, think.....so an empty nest will probably suit me fine. My husband stills works about 50 hours a week.

Let's see. If the youngest goes to college, it will be in 16 years. Have a long way to go.

My baby left home when she was 18. And will be 30 this next Saturday. So that makes it 12 years that I have been an emptynester...wow so that means I was 38 years old and I'm 50 now. I do miss my kids so much.

I was 44. It was terrible for me, I really went through withdraw.

45

My DH and I became empty nesters on August 19, 2001. On November 11, 2003 we became the legal guardians of our grandsons. Last summer the youngest boy went back to live with his mother (our eldest daughter). This spring the older boy graduated from high school. He just went to college, so interestingly we became empty nesters again on August 19, 10 years later!!!!!!

I was 42, but it lasted only about 6 months. Then my son, almost 18, and his father had custody at the divorse 6 years before, ran away from his dad with 38 cents in his pocket, and hitch-hiked from Phoenix to Glendale, CA. Within a year of that, the oldest, 21 at that tme, came to live with us. I had to keep renting bigger apartments. And in less than another year the middle one came back to mom. I was alone from 2001 t0 2003, and then lived with the oldest for 3 years, and now have been alone for 5 years.I am 73 now, and fear that the middle one who has been on unemployment in CA for almost 2 years, will get desperate and come move into my sewing room!

About 41-42, nothing changed still worked and sewed when I could.

46

59... the only change was that I missed my son something fierce!