Scott Brown was mowing the lawn Tuesday when he looked up to see his wife standing in the driveway weeping.
Last Saturday, their only child, Nick, 19, moved out of their Red Bank house and into a freshman dorm room on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
The Brown home is now quiet, and Barbara Brown said she is having a hard time adjusting to her son's absence.
Parents experience a variety of emotions when their children head off to college.
Julie Baumgardner, executive director of the family-focused nonprofit First Things First, said parents should prepare well in advance for separating from college-age children.
"Our culture tells us when a child comes along they need to be the focus of everything," she said.
"I tell people that when you have children and you nurture them, remember to nurture your marriage, too, so when the big day comes that they leave home, you'll be comfortable with them leaving."
Baumgardner said she and her husband, Jay, last week took their only child, Ashley, 17, to Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga.
"Last year, we intentionally started spending time with people who are empty-nesters so that we could learn the ropes of dealing with it before it happened to us," she said.
Still, for many parents, separation anxiety is unavoidable.
THE BROWNS
Though Barbara Brown, a preschool teacher, knows that going off to college is a positive thing for her son, Nick, her emotional attachment is making the separation painful.
"He's a good kid - never got in trouble - and he's fun to be around," she said. "He and I are night owls, so we spent many nights just talking. I am missing that."
Mr. Brown, on the other hand, said he is happy for his son.
"These next four or five years are going to be some of the best years of his life," said Mr. Brown, an information technology specialist at Unum. "I encouraged Nick to go away to college to experience college life."
Mrs. Brown said she would have been satisfied if her son opted to attend a local college but supported his decision to go away to school.
"I did ask him to choose a school within a six-hour radius so he could get home or we could get to him rather quickly if we needed to," she said. "I was happy he chose the University of Tennessee."
Last Saturday, as the Browns began driving toward Knoxville, the reality of their son moving away hit home, Mrs. Brown said.
"I cried all the way to Knoxville, but Scott kept reassuring me everything was going to be OK," she said. "I miss him."
The Browns are confident their son's strong ethics and faith-based background will fuel success in college.
"I told him to be sure to make good decisions, stay true to his spiritual upbringing and to budget his time and money well," Mr. Brown said. "It's just that extreme element of influence, things you don't know about, that I know he will face in college life."
Nick called his parents Tuesday and they talked for 30 minutes, Mrs. Brown said.
"He told me he was having great days every day and that he was already realizing all that we had done for him," Mrs. Brown said. "He said he had to go to Target to buy food and a pillow."
Meanwhile, Mom and Dad are adjusting to their two-person household.
THE SHIPLEYS
Laurie Shipley and her husband, Tom, took their only child, Keli, 17, to Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn., on Wednesday.
"I'm so excited for her," Mrs. Shipley said. "She's got the world in her grasp. The sky's the limit."
The commute from Chattanooga to Maryville gave mother and daughter the perfect opportunity to talk about college life. (Dad drove in a separate car to help transport Keli's belongings.)
"We had a great talk about the future," said Mrs. Shipley, who works at Comcast. "I reinforced to her to embrace every opportunity. My best advice to her was to be true to herself, her ethics, her morals. She knows right from wrong."
After the Shipleys got their daughter settled in her dorm, they hugged and kissed her goodbye. "Then we were dismissed," Mrs. Shipley said.
"I always said that my job as a parent was to raise a well-adjusted, self-confident, self-reliant child who could make it in the world without me. I think I did 'too good,' " she said, noting that her daughter didn't cry and assured her mom that she would be fine.
But leaving her behind wasn't so easy, Mrs. Shipley admitted.
"I cried. It will be quiet around here," she said. "I want the best for her. We've encouraged her not to come home on the weekends but to immerse herself in college life."
THE SWAFFORDS
Last week, Valarie Swafford took her 16-year-old son, Nicholas, to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he is now a freshman.
Though she said her son is excited to be in Knoxville, his decision to go away took her by surprise.
"Nick is younger than most college freshmen, but he's mature for his age and he was excited about going to a big school," said Swafford, a marketing communications consultant at Unum. "Once I attended orientation with him and learned that 14,000 students applied and only 4,200 were accepted into the freshman class, I felt even better about his decision. The administration at University of Tennessee kept referring to this freshman class as 'the cream of the crop.' I am so proud of him and excited that he was accepted."
Swafford said the separation anxiety from her son hasn't been extreme.
"I had those empty-nest feelings on our drive home after orientation in June. There was a lot of information to digest, and it really hit us both that things were going to be changing in the very near future," she said.
Saying goodbye, however, was difficult.
"A friend went with me because she didn't want me to drive home alone," Swafford said. "I thought I could get out of his room without crying, but once I realized that I needed to leave and let him settle in, the tears started flowing. We hugged, and I told him that I loved him, that I wanted him to do great and have fun."
Meanwhile, mom is finding ways to stay busy, she said.
"I'm working out more, taking salsa dance classes and considering joining the Unum bowling league. If my kids are having fun without me, I'm going to do the same."