Refeathering the Empty Nest

Finalist, Books for a Better Life Award: “A terrific read that offers parents a new way of thinking and being after their last child leaves home.” —Guy Winch, PhD, author of Emotional First Aid

Parents make an enormous emotional and financial investment in raising their children. But children grow up. They move out. They create their own lives and their own homes—and the role of the parent changes, diminishes, and evolves.

This life phase has no official name, yet it represents a profound shift from the rigors of daily parenting to a period of self-reflection and reorientation. In this book, Wendy Aronsson centers on that experience, capturing the realities of the emotions and life changes that come on gradually, and sometimes proceed in fits and starts. Refeathering the Empty Nestis for any parent preparing for a grown child’s departure from home and wanting to move forward productively, both in their changed parenting role and in their roles as spouse, employee, friend, neighbor, and self. 

Using real stories throughout, Aronsson shows how people have managed these changes, how they’ve reignited the passion in their marriages or moved on from bad matches, how they’ve rediscovered old interests and talents, and how they’ve reinvented their relationships with their children as well. These stories provide hope and guidance to anyone whose nest is about to empty, as well as those whose nests already are.