Empty Nest Quotes

• When mothers talk about the depression of the empty nest, they're not mourning the passing of all those wet towels on the floor, or the music that numbs your teeth, or even the bottle of capless shampoo dribbling down the shower drain. They're upset because they've gone from supervisor of a child's life to a spectator. It's like being the vice president of the United States.

  Erma Bombeck

  Mother, Retirement, Children

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• The biggest change for me as a mom was realizing I needed to put someone else before me. Now the hardest part about the empty nest is learning to put myself first. I know that I have raised my sons to be big, strong, independent men who love God, themselves and care for others. I have to learn to let them have space and learn without me.

  Kim Alexis

  Mom, Strong, Independent

  20 Copy quote

• Home is where somebody notices when you are no longer there.

  Aleksandar Hemon

  Home, Understanding, Deep Thought

  Aleksandar Hemon (2009). “The Lazarus Project”, p.3, Pan Macmillan

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• People make a lot of jokes about the empty nest. Let me tell you, it is no laughing matter. It is really hard.

  Michelle Pfeiffer

  People, Laughing, Nests

  "Michelle Pfeiffer Opens Up About Younger Men, Love, and Family". Interview with Dotson Rader, parade.com. May 3, 2012.

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• Contrary to all we hear about women and their empty-nest problem, it may be fathers more often than mothers who are pained by thechildren's imminent or actual departure--fathers who want to hold back the clock, to keep the children in the home for just a little longer. Repeatedly women compare their own relief to their husband's distress

  Lillian B. Rubin

  Mother, Children, Husband

  Lillian B. Rubin (1981). “Women of a certain age: the midlife search for self”, Harpercollins

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• I diagnosed my loneliness as premature empty nest syndrome.

  Kristen Schaal

  Funny, Loneliness, Humor

  11 Copy quote

• How then can we account for the persistence of the myth that inside the empty nest lives a shattered and depressed shell of a woman--a woman in constant pain because her children no longer live under her roof? Is it possible that a notion so pervasive is, in fact, just a myth?

  Lillian B. Rubin

  Children, Pain, Persistence

  10 Copy quote

• The empty nest is underrated.

  Nora Ephron

  Parent, Nests, Underrated

  "I Feel Bad About My Neck" by Nora Ephron, www.nytimes.com. August 20, 2006.

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• The best way to keep children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant, and let the air out of the tires.

  Dorothy Parker

  Inspirational, Funny, Hilarious

  Dorothy Parker (2004). “Dorothy Parker in Her Own Words”, Taylor Trade Publishing

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• Think of your woods and orchards without birds! Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams As in an idiot's brain remembered words Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Dream, Thinking, Bird

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.743, Delphi Classics

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• When a man is forced into early retirement, he is often being 'given up for a younger man.' Being forced into early retirement can be to a man what being 'given up for a younger woman' is for a woman... Why do many men get more upset by retirement than women do from the empty nest when their children leave home? When females retire from children, they can try a career; when a man retires from a career, his children are gone.

  Warren Farrell

  Retirement, Children, Home

  "The Myth of Male Power". Book by Warren Farrell, 1993.

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• They had each other and there was a love between them that would withstand anything. Alina and I had always intuited, with no small wry pique, that, although our parents adored us and would do anything for us, they loved each other more. As far as I was concerned, that was the way it should be. Kids grow up, move on and find a love of their own. The empty nest shouldn't leave parents grieving. It should leave them ready and excited to get on with living their own adventure, which would, of course, include many visits to children and grandchildren.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Children, Growing Up, Moving

  Karen Marie Moning (2009). “Dreamfever: Fever Series”, p.235, Delacorte Press

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