The Empty Nest

by Sue Watson

I’ve lived with the shadow of this loss twice in my life now, and it’s agony. But having children is agony. From the minute they’re born we hold them to us knowing life will never be the same again. The worry never leaves us, but one day the children will – and we are left with our empty nests, and full desks, and we tell ourselves we now have time for ourselves. But what we don’t realise is that we are never ourselves again after having children, they shape us as much as we shape them.