When should your babies fly from the nest?

A topic I am very passionate about. So...when should they? While raising our son, we listened to parents from all over saying things like "Only a few more years, and we're free!" or "Come 18...you're outa here!" and many many more. It horrified my husband and I to hear these parents telling their children that.

Can you imagine being 15, 16 and wondering what is going to happen to you when you turn 18...like being kicked out? Now I KNOW there are some families this works for, but it always baffled us. When did our society start thinking like this? Was there an earthquake in time that just threw everyone for a loop? I don't know if it was the fact that we had our son so young and were terrified or if we just have "old school parenting minds", but we never said that or anything like that to our son. That is a lot of pressure to put on a kid.

Our son had a friend that I used to take home from ROTC, he forever talked about "When I turn 18 I gotta move out"! That used to just freak me out for him! There was another friend of our son...who woke up one day (when he was 16) and his parents had LITERALLY moved out of their apartment. He was forced to live there alone, worked at a coffee house and pay the bills PLUS go to school. It broke my heart...and I could never wrap my brain around WHY someone would do that.

Bottom line...this is our home. OUR home. Not just my husband & mine's home...it's our son's home, and we have always told him that he is welcome here for as long as need be. We DO however have rules...be respectful, no drugs and no stealing from us...which are silly rules in our home, because he doesn't have any of that in him.

Family is the most important thing you can have in this world. It is a gift! And let me tell you from experience...stop wishing your children's life away, like "I can't wait until they can talk, walk, feed themselves, goes to school, etc" because...before you know it...you blink and they are grown! Enjoy your children, make sure they know they are loved and that they have a forever home, where you are. They may not stay long...but at least they will remember the home they grew up in as HOME.

Have a great one y'all!

XOXO!