S*&# You Can Do When Your Kids Leave Home, Part III

(You Can Visit Them!)

One of my four or five readers was a little offended the last time I used the graphic symbol s*&# in my blog, so you might want to skip this one. For the rest of you, I have another fun adventure to tell you about that you can look forward to when your kids leave home – you can go visit them!

There will be that period when they leave for college that you will not want to enter a dorm room or apartment for fear of catching a disease. That’s okay. It’s all as it should be. Some things are best left unknown. Be assured – this phase too shall end.

Fast-forward to your child’s adult, working life. You can relax, enjoy and even SPEND THE NIGHT in your child’s adult apartment or home.

Last weekend my husband and I visited our son in Dallas. As we entered his spotless, well-maintained home, I was a little jealous since I hadn’t had time to clean our house before we left town. But I got over that when my son brought out the chopped vegetables, dips, wine and beer. Thinking the cupboards would be bare, my husband and I had picked up a bottle of wine and some beer on the way. Our son was a little insulted. He already had a bottle of wine and some beer chilling in the refrigerator for us! What?! Someone trained that kid right.

But wait! That’s not all. The next morning, we discovered that our son, who wakes up with a Diet Coke (not all of his training was good), had purchased a coffee pot and some coffee – just for me and my husband! If you’re like me and cannot wake up without coffee, you understand how important this is. He even texted his coffee-snob sister to find out the best kind of coffee to buy!

Breakfast was a Fresh Market quiche, fruit and banana bread. There were small difficulties. I wouldn’t want to lead you to believe that everything was perfect. He did have to figure out how to turn on the oven to bake the quiche. And when it was time to take it out, he had to use paper towels because he doesn’t own any kitchen towels, but it all worked. I was happy to have someone else make the food and serve me.

During the day, we did adult things like have lunch at a trendy outdoor café and go to the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth.

All in all, it was a relaxing weekend with our son. Our daughters are housemates in Urbana, IL, and we’ll be visiting them in a few weeks. The gauntlet has been thrown down, ladies.