By Michele Miller
What’s What New Port Richey
October 14, 2025
We are working our way out of the infancy stage of reentry – a new and somewhat unexpected phase we’ve embarked upon these past weeks, in these, our supposed golden years.
With over 45 years under our belt as a couple – the last nine or so on our own – we’ve become accustomed to the empty-nest lifestyle, complete with retirement, early-bird dinners, afternoon naps, and coming and going as we please, even as we sometimes fret and worry from afar.
Now, as we accept the adult child back into the fold, there are new necessary boundaries to adhere to – on both sides as she trades the Tennessee foothills for Florida’s west coast.
Things have changed, to be sure. The dynamics, like the climates, are different these days.
Instinct has a tendency to nudge me back to the hover-mother years. I’m working hard to resist even as I fix a third plate for dinner, because I know full well it’s not appropriate for the “kid” who just celebrated their 30th and has been living out on her own since her college years.
She’s got this.
It’s something you bring up when you’re at your annual, and the doc that tended to you during that last geriatric pregnancy asks about your family and any major changes that have occurred since he saw you last, because that’s an important part of tending to your mental and physical health.
Have you fallen?
Are you depressed?
Lifestyle changes?
“That kid you delivered all those years ago, well, she’s come back to roost for a while – till she gets back on her feet,” I tell him.
“That’s what we do,” he answers with a knowing nod, going on to tell me about his own son’s temporary stay this past year. “We take them back with open arms.”
And send them off again.
Aren’t we lucky to be able to do that? Especially in these troubled and uncertain times that have played a big hand in landing her back here during an incredibly tough job market.
That is a common and optimistic take for those who understand the winding and sometimes cyclical path of parenthood – and life in general. It comes with a fair share of crossroads and byways. U-turns and roundabouts and off-ramps – some giving fair warning that there’s no open on-ramp to get you back on once you exit, so you’d best be sure of where you’re going.
Home, of course.
Welcome back, kiddo.
Now onward.
Michele Miller is the owner and editor of What’s What New Port Richey, a community website with a mission to “Connect People to the Community They Live in. Before creating the website in 2020, she worked for 24 years as a reporter and photographer for the St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay Times. You can contact her at mmiller@whatswhatnewportrichey.com
