I was 31 when I married someone with a 5-year-old son. So I've never had "alone" time. We had 2 other sons of our own when I was 33 and 35. Our youngest started college in 2000, so we basically became empty nesters except for the summer of 2001. He chose to co-op in his field of electrical engineering so he was either working or taking classes in the summers after that. We basically had 3 years with just the two of us. Our oldest son and his wife went off the deep end in many ways, bringing heart break to us. Social services took their 2 children. To prevent their going into foster care, we gained them through the court system in 2004. They are now 12 and 14. When the youngest turns 18 in 6 years, I will be 71 and my husband 74. Having them has certainly prevented us from traveling as we'd planned, but I thank God we have been their lifeline, and they are not in foster care.