Every time we get out of bed in the morning - there is a reason... our children. But what happens when the children are grown and gone? Why do you get out of bed?
I was watching The Golden Girls yesterday and something that Sophia said really struck home. It was an episode from Season 3 that dealt with Alzheimer's disease. Sophia befriends an old black man who turns out to have the disease and is being sent to a home for treatment. She finds out the news and tells Dorothy, her daughter, that even when you're old, you still need a reason to get out of bed in the morning (referring to her friendship with the old man).
What are you going to do when your kids are all grown up? As stay-at-home moms with no actual careers, we, in particular, need to think of things like this. We devote our whole young lives to our children and experience the empty nest syndrome when they move out on their own and leave us wondering, "What do I do now?"
Now, if you are really lucky, you've saved enough for you and your husband to retire comfortably with perhaps enough to do a little travelling, too. But then what? What happens when you come home and back to that empty nest? TV and the porch swing?
Start thinking now about who you are and what makes you happy, aside from your kids. I know that for me, up until recently, I have made most of my life about my kids... which is as it should be as my children are only 2 and 3 years old. However, as a woman and an individual who has worked all of her teen and adult life up until pregnancy number one, I feel that I need to do something more to contribute to the family and the world in general. Call it pride if you will, but each of us has something special to give. Find out what it is that you have and make sure that you are ready when the time is right!
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