From the time a baby bird hatches until the time it leaves the nest, the parents’ job is to teach it how to survive in the wild. Still, even after young birds first hop out of their tree, some protective parents will stay nearby and continue to provide care.
After all, a parent’s sense of purpose is matched only by their nurturing instinct – a phenomenon that both transcends species and helped coin the expression “empty nest syndrome,” which describes the sadness human parents experience after a child leaves home.
Every year, tens of millions of graduating high school seniors enroll in college. According to a study conducted between 2012 and 2014, 58 percent of those students will attend a school less than 100 miles from home. Eleven percent will travel more than 500 miles away for school – thus compounding that psychic struggle faced by moms and dads.
To better understand this emotional process, Chatter spoke with three local families in the process of sending their firstborns to an out-of-state school this August.
Regardless of their upbringings, number of children or the number of miles their college-bound is moving, these parents agree: That moment your child first spreads his or her wings and flies is bittersweet.