- Fun Without Dick and Jane, by Christie Mellor, Chronicle Books, 174 pages, $16.95.
FROM the moment of birth you have loved and protected your children.
Year after year you've discovered new ways of going even further for them. It seems like a blink of the eye and they've gone from elementary school to high school, blink again and they are heading off to college.
In that moment of quiet after the last child has left, you realize this is it, you are now an empty nester. Suddenly you have more time available than you've known for decades and the weight of this will leave you feeling either lifted or crushed depending on how well you've prepared for it.
Christie Mellor provides a light-hearted look at this new reality but amid the humour are plenty of solid nuggets of good advice. After all the years of rushing around you now have time for yourself and for your spouse, you know, that person who sits across from you at breakfast. Reconnecting with your partner and also with friends will bring out a new set of questions about what and how you will move forward.
Mellor discusses a wide range of topics from downsizing your house, to travel plans, going back to school, pursuing new interests and much more. With a smirk on her lips and a gleam in her eye, Mellor takes you to the edge of the nest and gives you a little nudge where you discover that without children along you actually can fly.
