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Diane McTigue's avatar

This is all such sage advice! I have trouble controlling the number of Instagram reels I forward to all three - I've read that this is called "pebbling" and I'm apparently building quite a pile.

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Cynthia W. Gentry's avatar

Pebbling! That's the perfect word for it.

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Carolyn Lee Arnold's avatar

So wise! I’m not a parent but I love your take on this! The chocolate!

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Cindy Faatz's avatar

Love this! And so wish I had these tips when my kids headed off to college :-)

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Ciara Blume Author's avatar

There was a whole debate in the FB parent group of my son’s school about laundry pods. Apparently some parents were staunchly against sending kids to school with them because they don’t work if you put them in the tray instead of the machine. And they were sure their poor witless children were going to screw it up and have to live with dirty underwear till they came home for break. Giant jugs of detergent, these parents concluded, was the only solution to this vexing problem. That’s when I unsubscribed from the group!

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Cynthia W. Gentry's avatar

Laundry pods! The mind reels.

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Sherry Cormier's avatar

Such great tips! Empty nest is really a form of loss and most of us have some sadness especially until we get used to the new routines.

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Cynthia W. Gentry's avatar

So true! And a conflicted form of loss. On one hand, I'm thrilled that my son is thriving at college, but on the other hand, I sure miss him, because no one makes me laugh harder.

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Sherry Cormier's avatar

It is conflicted! You are happy for him and his growth yet you miss his presence

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Cynthia W. Gentry's avatar

Exactly!

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Irena Smith's avatar

Loved this. Especially the part about consuming a shit ton of chocolate to cope and the part about sending pics of the cat to elicit a response. I do the same thing (I saw the reference to pebbling in one of the responses and I do the same thing—"here's a funny reel! here's another one! and another!") Hang in there.

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