Nostradamus

by Brian

It was not easy to coordinate the move out of one large house and into 2 smaller apartments with two different move-in dates. Luckily, it was Bobbie and my apartment that was ready first which allowed all four of us to settle into the larger unit. To help survive this near-term chaotic living situation, Bobbie took both kids on road trip to Florida to stay with her sister. We have made this trip several times over the years, but in this case I stayed behind. This allowed me to handle the initial unpacking, WIFI set up, and continue working at my Finance position in effort to stay employed.

It is a little-known fact that when I am left alone, my mind tends to work overtime to solve many of life’s problems, real and imagined. This time it gave me a chance to think through the year ahead and what success for our family would look like. In a rare moment of genius, I decided to document my top 11 predictions for the coming year.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Due to their resistance to change, I expect it will take at least a month for the kids to settle in to living independently
2. Using schedules to productively plan their days will be a challenge, but will ultimately help the kids mature
3. Bobbie and I have been married for >25 years and I expect our relationship will grow even closer with more alone time
4. Our dog Junior craves attention from everyone in the family throughout the day, I expect his transition to apartment living will be harder than ours
5. Since our kids don’t drive and many amenities are now nearby, we will walk everywhere, get in great shape, and save money from rising gas prices
6. An important change from not living under one roof will be that time thoughtfully scheduled with the kids will be more meaningful
7. Given their anxiety, I expect we will receive at least 8 texts from the kids on their first night alone
8. The dog park near our apartment will be both a blessing and a curse, providing a playground for Junior but also a “barking” disruption for my daily work calls
9. In effort to spend more time on meaningful activities, we have a goal of unplugging more often from our phones and devices. I expect breaking the “addiction” will be stressful for all of us
10. Having an AMC Showplace Theater next door will be awesome and we will watch at least 12 new movies this year
11. Although we are used to being involved in nearly all aspects of their lives, we will have to let go for our kids to grow

I will check back later in the year to see how these predictions fared.

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Hello all. This is Bobbie and I thought I would include a few of my predictions for the coming year to give you my perspective also.

1. Giving the kids independence will be a lot of work for be compared to living in one house.
2. There will be a lot of separation anxiety to overcome both from the kids and the parents.
3. Some of the unknown skills the kids need to learn will surprise us.
4. There will be many times when the kids will take a sudden step backwards for unforeseen reasons.
5. Brian and I will be called often to break up disagreements.
6. It will be very difficult to regulate if a schedule is being followed so many things will get skipped.
7. There will be many tears and hurt feelings during the learning curve so we will need to hang strong while still holding them to expectations.
8. Many skills we may think are easy will need to be broken into subskills to teach one at a time.
9. We will need even more patience than before since they have to learn a bunch of new skills and expectations in addition to feeling the freedom of living away from the parents.