Things We Wish We’d Known BEFORE We Sent Our Kids to College... and A Fairy Tale Chocolate Wedding

It's that time of year again, and many new empty nesters are sending a fledgling off to college for the first time.

Here are some DOs and DON'Ts from your seasoned GypsyNesters on how to get through that first semester without losing your mind.

1. Don’t start off on a bad note. It's hard to let our kids go. The day our babies head out on their own is a tough one for any parent. Because of her self-awareness about her emotional outbursts, Veronica ... CONTINUE READING >>

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A Fairy Tale Chocolate Wedding

Our favorite princess was set to tie the knot with one of the top ten chocolatiers in North America - the king of ultra-premium chocolates - and the nuptials were not to be missed.

Anytime a princess marries a king, it's a big deal - and when the surname is Love, it's bound to be the social event of the season!

The reception began with a champagne toast... CONTINUE READING >> 

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Am I a Snow Plow Parent? ...and Big Sur, California!

Am I a Snow Plow Parent? 7 Modern Parenting Terms

This glossary of modern parenting terms from around the world provides a cautionary tale through definitions. Could a Snow Plow Parent accidentally raise a Kidult in a perpetual state of Adultescence?

Snow Plow Parents Like the snow removal apparatus, a Snow Plow Parent will be sure to... CONTINUE READING >>




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Sir, Yes Sur! Driving the California Coast

The images look unbelievable, but they are real and they are spectacular. This is Big Sur. 

Waves crashing against the craggy coast, mist drifting up mountains that rise abruptly from the sea, bridges impossibly clinging to cliffs...

A perfect day trip ending with elephant seals... CONTINUE READING >> 

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Our Son Has One of the Most Dangerous Jobs in the World

The Boy has just embarked on a new journey. He has accepted one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

He is now an Alaskan bush pilot (I suppose we should now call him "Captain The Boy").

This is something he has wanted to do for a long time, and though I'm beyond-words proud of him for realizing a dream (and working extremely hard for it), I am not thrilled by... CONTINUE READING >>

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Fabulous Food Signs of Osaka's Dotonbori 

The competition for most eye-catching advertising extravaganza is nearly as much of a draw as the food in Osaka, Japan's Dotonbori District.

When the crab restaurant Kani Doraku erected their giant mechanized crab sign back in 1960 they kicked off quite a craze of giant animated... CONTINUE READING >>

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Big, Big, BIG News! Going Gypsy and the Story of its Cover (you may judge the book by it)!

Remember that big news we've been spouting off about? The news we were afraid to talk about because we couldn't believe it was actually happening?

Well here it is (drumroll please!):

We have a book coming out!
Can you imagine how hard this has been for over-sharing me to not say anything?

But, before we get into the details, I want to tell you the story about the cover.

Last December... CONTINUE READING >>

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The Old College Pry and Ancient Mayan Ruins in Mexico

How do we know when we've become too involved in our offspring's college education?

 Is it okay to call a professor to dispute a test score? Should we proofread papers? Should we have access to grades if we are paying tuition? Should we storm the Dean's office?

 This recovering helicopter mom got the straight dope from college professors - and you won't believe their stories... CONTINUE READING >>


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The Ancient Mayan Ruins at Tulum, Mexico

Tulum is not the kind of place that even the most wandering GypsyNesting-type will stumble upon by accident.

It's not on the way to anywhere. But since we found ourselves on the Caribbean coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, what's known as the Riviera Maya, we hopped on a bus to the ancient Mayan site.

We wanted to enjoy both a ... CONTINUE READING >>

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Grounding My Helicopter Ways & Istanbul's Breathtaking Blue Mosque

Helicopter Mom - You Are Grounded

"A mother is only as happy as her saddest child,” a close friend’s grandmother used to say.

When I first heard her say this, all three of my children were young and safely in the nest so I could totally relate. Somehow I thought once they were grown up this would change.

It didn’t.

Trouble finds its way into everyone‘s lives - and as much as we hate it - trouble finds our adult children. Whether it rears its ugly head in a... CONTINUE READING >>

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Picture This: The Breathtaking Blue Mosque of Istanbul

Built in 1609 by Sultan Ahmed I, the Blue Mosque features a main dome, eight secondary domes, and six minarets, and is considered the pinnacle of two centuries of Ottoman mosque development. 

Upon entering the mosque, Veronica was dumbstruck - unable to begin to take photos. She couldn't figure out where to start.

We saw why... CONTINUE READING >> 

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The Couple of Things

I was recently interviewed for a magazine article about empty nesting from the Dad's point of view. As usual, I was happy to add my two cents.

 Most of the questions involved the logistics of pulling off our GypsyNester lifestyle, things like selling the house, making an income, traveling and the like.

But one question completely caught me by surprise... CONTINUE READING >>

We have a winner!

Click to see who won!

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Who's Kidding Who?

The last task of raising a child is letting them go.

Allowing them to flap their cute little wings and fly... giving them a gentle nudge out of the nest to get them airborne.

OK, sometimes it's more like a hard shove off a cliff... but then the harder transition from the parent-child to an adult-to-adult relationship must be made.

This process doesn't happen overnight. The ritual sounds easy in theory, but it can be a bit sticky in practice. It's difficult not to... CONTINUE READING >>

Also on GypsyNester.com this week:

Vibrant, colorful Buenos Aires - a city alive with music, dance, history and culture. It was so easy to immerse ourselves; to breathe it in.

Find out our favorite spots… CONTINUE READING > >

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Grandchildish Behavior

I've had two unexpected conversations recently that have given me pause for reflection. The first was with my father-in-law while dining over Mexican food in Kansas. While catching him up with our kids' lives, he asked me if they were dating anyone of note. I told him that at the moment there were no significant others. Then, the bolt out of the blue,

"Oh, you must be sad that you won't be having grandchildren anytime soon."

The next exchange was with my daughters, The Piglet and Decibel.

“All of our friends' mothers are on crazy grandma patrol. How come you aren’t nagging us about having babies?”

It started out as gentle teasing, but... CONTINUE READING >>

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Boomerang Brats

The author of "The Benefits Of Being A Boomerang Kid" lists three reasons that full grown adults should continue to force their parents to support them and, consequently, avoid contributing to the economy and society at large.

On the top of his list, spending Mom and Pop's money instead of his own.

"Saving Up- With no rent or utilities, you can build up your nest egg as long as you're disciplined."

Gee that's right Kid, no worries. Has it occurred to you that while you're "building up your nest egg" that you're depleting your parents'... CONTINUE READING >> 

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What Do the Experts Say About Boomerang Kids? It's NOT what you think

Full-grown, twenty-something college graduates are returning home to have their parents continue supporting them due to "immaturity" or because "they just prefer the comforts of home?" And the expert's take is that there is nothing wrong with that picture?

Jaw, meet floor. Maybe there was some mistake. Maybe the expert, wasn't clear on her meaning. We should give her the benefit of the doubt and look at the answers she and her fellow expert gave to some other pertinent questions. After all, they are on the staff at... CONTINUE READING >> 

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Smooth Sailing? Not Likely!

I'd been following the controversial Abby Sunderland story with interest. Remember Abby? She was the sixteen-year-old sailor who, while attempting to sail her vessel around the world solo, found herself stranded in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Her parents took quite a bit of flack over the situation. I'd looked at this story from many different angles - and, as usual, my feelings were mixed.

The helicopter Mommy in me shouted, "What the &#*% were her parents thinking?!" But after calm reflection I saw things a bit differently. I too have a child with "dangerous dreams." My son, The Boy, has been flying airplanes since he was thirteen.

Sure, I've heard all the arguments...... CONTINUE READING >> 

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I Am NOT a Useless Waste!

Has it happened? Have I become a crotchety old lady? Do I abhor certain kinds of music because I'm too old to get it? Am I shocked at some of the things that "young people" wear these days?

Possibly so. But I'm dead certain of one thing - people are much more rude than they were when I was a young whippersnapper.

Because we have a website  I am painfully aware that there are those that don't treat others with civility. I've quit reading the online comments on news stories – it's horrific.

Then, out of nowhere, cyberspace-type incivility came crashing into Real Life. In a manner that I couldn't ignore or justify... CONTINUE READING >>

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Our Philosophy - Celebrating Life After Kids

When Veronica and I began to think about our life after raising kids one of the first things we did was Google "empty nesters."

We wanted to see if anyone else was looking at this the same way that we were. With a feeling of “isn’t it great that the kids have moved out, and we'll have life to ourselves again?" To be untethered and free. To wander the globe. To be GypsyNesters instead of empty-nesters.

But no, just about everything we could find was lamenting how terrible it is that the kids aren't around anymore. Even worse, the biggest item on the first page we clicked into was an enormous ad for an... CONTINUE READING >> 

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Mom, Stop Coddling Me and Let Me Grow!

We have discussions about the parent / adult "kid" relationship quite frequently here at GypsyNester.com, but it's quite rare that we get to hear the young adult point of view on our site, other than a few cherished comments in our discussion section.

We don't kid ourselves, we are aware that there aren't a lot a twenty-something people who get up in the morning and think, hey, let's see what the geezer set is up to this days. 

So we felt pretty good when we came across "The Drawbacks of Being A Boomerang Kid" at YPULSE. In this story a recent college graduate  affirms our position on adult offspring returning to the nest.

"Could it be that some ... CONTINUE READING >> 

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You Brought Your MOM to Your Job Interview?

Okay, it’s rave time. Just a warning.

I sympathize with helicopter parents, I really do. I was one. I reluctantly stopped hovering once my kids left the nest. I knew that the sovereignty of the Spawns was more important than my own desire to continue colonial rule. Trust me, we’ve ALL benefited from my abdication.

Did I hound my offspring to do their homework when they were kids? You Betcha. Did I have meetings with their high school guidance counselors to voice concerns without the Spawn present? Guilty... CONTINUE READING >>

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Bounce That Boomerang

The subject of Boomerang "Kids" has been in the news a lot lately, and the story we're being sold is that poor, brave youngsters with new diplomas in hand have no choice but to move back into their old bedrooms at Mom and Dad's house.

All sorts of numbers have been bandied about, some say a quarter of recent grads are unemployed or underemployed, others say half, and one completely unscientific study proclaiming the preposterous idea that 85 percent... CONTINUE READING  >>

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Get a Job!

Once again an article online got me thinking. While I don't necessarily disagree with The Wall Street Journal's premise, the headline, Why Kids Today Have it Worse Than Their Parents (Ben Casselman), sure sounds whiney.

But the meat of the article has some good infonuggets:

"Today's 20-somethings are, broadly speaking, the children of the last of the Baby Boomers, those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s. That generation, like this one, came of age in the midst of a brutal recession: The unemployment rate for 18-24 year-olds topped 17% at the end of 1982. (In 2010, it briefly crossed 18%.)"

As a twenty-something back then, yeah, I remember that time well. Things were tight, but we got through it OK.

Now, having recently sent three newly-minted adults out into the world, I have firsthand experience of how both recessions have effected young adults. Lucky me.

It's no secret that we believe... CONTINUE READING >>

"Delayed-Launch Period?" Really?

Uh. I can't let this one go by. The Wall Street Journal has published an article entitled "Benefits of a Late Launch," discussing a new book, "Not Quite Adults."

I haven't read the book and it's going to take some time before I gather the fortitude to do so, as the subtitle is enough to make me cringe: "WHY 20-SOMETHINGS ARE CHOOSING A SLOWER PATH TO ADULTHOOD, AND WHY IT'S GOOD FOR EVERYONE." I want to be clear that I am responding to the Journal article, not the book.

To be fair, before I go off on my own rant, I will cite the benefits as the Journal lays them out... CONTINUE READING >>

Boomerang "Kids"

A recent advice column I read was just plain disturbing.

 It involved a mother who is a newly retired homeowner with an outstanding mortgage. Unless she was the CEO of a major publicly traded corporation, this lady is on a whopper of a fixed income.

 Now get this - she has two sons, aged 22 and 24, living in her home and she has asked them to pitch in and pay $30 a week.

 “Stressed-Out Mom” says that they are now “ranting and raving and calling her a bad... CONTINUE READING >>