You know the empty nest is coming when your child is born. What you don’t know is how it will affect you.

Your children leaving home is a major life transition. For them. And for you.

There are things you can do to help ease the transition. "The Friday Surprise" worked for our family.

PowerBars. That’s what did me in. A few protein-packed energy bars on a shelf actually triggered that ugly scene at our local market. The one where I abandoned the cart of groceries in the middle of the aisle, ran out into the parking lot, sobbing and sniveling until my eyes were red and swollen, my face a slippery mess.

I’m not going to try to explain it. I already did that once when my bewildered husband came rushing out after me convinced that some rude shopper must have pushed or tripped me, pulled a knife or a gun, detonated a bomb, or worse.

“It was the PowerBars,” I managed to get out between sobs.

Not that I’m suggesting this will happen to you. Just because you might be sending your kid off to college for the first time is no reason to believe you’re susceptible to random fits of irrational behavior like I was. And there’s certainly no reason to think that a week or so after you’ve dropped him off and everything seems........

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