#emptynest

Empty nest picture

I am on countdown! In approximately three weeks time I will have finished a very long day driving my two sons to Sheffield, one to continue with his degree and the other to start his. Although they are both in the same city they will be at different university's . . . 

. . . so what am I going to do?! It has been suggested that I have a party; that may come in time but the very first thing that I am going to do is reclaim my house from young adults!

Having thought about the fact that as I'm in the throws of perimenopause and thinking how similar it is to puberty, I have had time to reflect on my years as a teenager, especially those as a late teen and a young woman in her early twenty's. 

I regularly claim that my house has been hit by a bomb and this quote says it all. Having had the pleasure of my eldest son home for the best part of four months, I collected him on 29 May, I can confirm that having him plus my other son AND their two girlfriends, for a significant amount of that time, has made me feel just like this!

I have often gone to bed at night and hoped that the house fairy might have performed miracles when I get up in the morning only to discover when I open my door and walk down the stairs that nothing has changed.

Now here I will admit that my parents had to leave the nest as I wouldn't leave them . . . well that's how I see it! My parents abandoned me at the age of nineteen to move to the middle of nowhere in Scotland! This is not 'actually' true, it depends on how you tell the story!! I have three much younger brothers who 'had' to move with my parents but I was able to make a choice. I, at nineteen, had a job and a boyfriend and the prospect of moving the the West coast of Scotland, no matter how beautiful it is, was not even on my agenda!

I lived in my parents house for about six months, sold it for them; I like to claim that I did! (I was in sales at the time!!) I then lived in a flat of my own for about a year. My dad visited me once a month (that's a whole different story!) and he would say that he would have to do a month's worth of washing up before he could even make himself a cup of tea as there were never any clean plates, cups or cutlery! (I would also point out that he was making his own cup of tea; where was I offering him one?!) How times have changed!! He would also say that the bath was only ever cleaned when he came!

I am regularly told that 'it isn't that bad' and 'we've seen worse' . . . but as I say 'THIS IS MY HOUSE AND I WANT IT TO LOOK NICE . . . ONCE IN A WHILE'!

So, although it drives me potty that my house does not look like a show home and has had that 'lived in, student look' for the last four months I know that at some point these young people in my lives will understand what living in a clean house means . . . hopefully!!

I have wondered what I will do when I wake up on the first Sunday morning on my own. I've come up with many ideas but the first will actually be to spend the day cleaning. Now I am very aware that this may take more than one day but I will start it. The second major job on the list is to start decorating . . .

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, and illustrated by Anita Jeram, was first published in 1994; I bought it for our eldest son, who was born in 1994, when his little brother was born in 1997. 'I love you to the moon and back' is something that we have regularly said to each other; although obviously as they have got older this has become less frequent! They are boys! 

This is for both of them . . . as a reminder of how much I love them . . . how proud I am of them and that even though I am on countdown I will miss them both tremendously. My house might be cleaner and tidier but for a couple of months it will stop being a 'home' filled with them. Will they still wrestle each other in my sitting room when they come 'home'?!