Chicken Soup for the Soul: Empty Nesters: 101 Stories about Surviving and Thriving When the Kids Leave Home

This is Chicken Soup for the Soul's first book on a very emotional but exciting time for parents - sending their children off to college or new homes and careers.

 

This terrific book is a must read for empty nesters or soon-to-be empty nesters.  It contains 101 stories written by parents who have been there already and share their stories with new empty nesters.  These heartfelt stories will inspire, support, and amuse parents grappling with their own bittersweet new freedom.  The book also includes stories from the kids themselves, providing the view from the other side.  Parents will nod their heads, cry a little, and laugh a lot as they recognize themselves and their almost grown-up children in these stories.

 

In this book, parents share stories of gazing at surprisingly clean bedrooms, starting new careers, rediscovering their spouses, and handling the continuing, and often humorous, needs of their children even while they are away at college or ensconced in their own apartments.  In one amusing story, a mother writes of dropping her last child off at college and then realizing that she and her husband can do anything they want.  They spend three days driving the six hours home.

 

The first Chicken Soup for the Soul book was published in 1993, and became a publishing industry sensation, ultimately selling eight million copies.  Since then, more than 150 Chicken Soup titles have been published, selling more than 100 million copies.

 

Chicken Soup for the Soul has won dozens of awards over the past 15 years, and its founders, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen have become celebrity motivational speakers and authors.