Today I packed my kids up and kissed them goodbye and sent them to Toronto for eight weeks with their Dad. Of course, I have become accustomed to the separation from my 18-year-old daughter; she left for a faraway university last fall and was only here for a brief visit before starting her summer job back in Canada. It was painful and sad but it was made slightly less horrific because of my son’s continued presence in my nest.
But I have not been apart from him for more than a week his entire life, and no more than a handful of nights since we moved here.
I must confess I thought it would be liberating to have the house and my life to myself for eight weeks, but instead, after he hugged me good-bye and they drove off, I felt a sort of low-level panic at the idea of being separated from him, and totally childless for the first time in almost 19 years.
What will I do with myself? Who will I talk to, other than the cats??? (DING DING DING — crazy cat lady alarm bells ringing!!!) Who will I cook for? Will I even bother cooking? Will I only do laundry once a week? Who will I rush home to? What will I do when he’s not shrieking from the basement for me to come and kill a bug (he has some serious issues with bugs, and they grow ’em big here)?
I am going to be relieved when eight weeks is up, and I am seriously dreading when he goes off to university too.
ButtercupPunch - "La clique, c’est chic!" 
June 21, 2009 at 9:55 am
If I were anywhere near you, I’d tell you I’d have no problems if you wanted to cook for me.
Aw, Trix, I’m sure you’ll find something to occupy these weeks! Can’t say I know what it feels like, because even though I live alone, I’ve never had kids. I remember my mum trying to be all brave when my dad used to pick us up during the first few years after the divorce though. I’d always try to comfort her, not yet understanding that this sort of made it worse.
June 21, 2009 at 10:01 am
There’s nothing wrong w/talking to your cats and cooking for them!
June 21, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Agreed.
Well, I don’t cook for mine, since I can barely muster up the energy to cook for myself. But I do talk to her.
June 21, 2009 at 10:31 am
put on some music, get you a little jurnt going and dance around the house in your panties, because, why not?
June 22, 2009 at 11:52 pm
You are so on the right track right here.
June 21, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Now you really want me to come over, I guess.
Who’s going to help you pack and move?
June 22, 2009 at 5:49 am
I’m gonna send you a couple of pups to take care of in the absence of your young’uns.
Trust me, you won’t miss them when you send them back to me after 8 weeks.
June 22, 2009 at 10:40 am
Trixie…I have a 14 year old girl you can borrow for 8 weeks.
June 22, 2009 at 2:21 pm
My prediction: It will be weird and sucky and depressing for a week and then it will start to be… nice. Kind of peaceful. You know, this is maybe good practice for when he really does leave (MANY YEARS from now). Look after yourself, maybe take a trip, play your music as loud as you want, hit a show, take leisurely baths, read books, have your weird friends over.
It’s like a breakup: really hard at first, but then you come back to yourself a bit and remember how to be on your own again. With the bonus that the kid and you are on good terms and he’ll be back soon enough!
June 25, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I was just about to write the EXACT SAME THING, but I think tailfeather said it better.
June 22, 2009 at 11:47 pm
you can come visit and cook for us! make some pies! or you know, watch whale wars and take a lot of naps…
June 22, 2009 at 11:53 pm
(Sorry, Kadinsky.)
Sugar, you are SO on the right track with this.
June 23, 2009 at 8:34 am
whatevs, just get ready for ME to come visit y’all in the new place. I’ll be 1800 miles closer!
June 23, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Mm! Those motherfuckers BETTER give us that damn 2-night Vegas stay or I’m gonna give ’em what-for.
June 23, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Get laid, get high, and in a week you’ll have forgotten even how to spell laundry.
June 25, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Shhh! No one tell her about our invasion…