Preparing, Adjusting, and Loving the Empty Nest

Book excerpt: After Empty Nest, What's Next? Parenting Adult Children without Losing Your Mind, readers asked author Michele Howe for more—covering topics not discussed in the first book, along with questions at the end of each chapter for personal or group discussions. With Preparing, Adjusting, and Loving the Empty Nest, Howe provides expanded practical tips and spiritual wisdom in a three-part primer to help parents in this transitional time of life—helping them look to the future with hope as empty nesters. Preparing, Adjusting, and Loving the Empty Nest covers new and more in-depth topics related to the empty-nest stage of life. The author invites you to sit down and "linger a while in all things empty nest related—then go a step further and reflect upon the life lessons other empty-nest parents have discovered." Sample chapters include: Helping Your High School Kids Ready Themselves to Face the WorldBudgeting Is a Family AffairGenerating a Strong Bond of Trust That Will Handle the SeparationHandling Those Lonely FeelingsNever, Ever Compare Your Journey to OthersWork at Making Coming Home Special for Your Grown Children