What Every Empty Nest Parent Needs to Know (Part 2)

Mindset shift #3: Respect their boundaries.

I once met a woman at a conference who expressed both frustration and resignation over an ongoing situation with her mother-in-law. “She barges into my house without knocking whenever she feels likes stopping by,” she said, before lowering her voice. “If I changed the locks, I don’t think we would survive her reaction.”

That’s not even the most horrifying aspect of the story. The woman was in her fifties and the mother-in-law was in her seventies! For many years, a pattern of disregard for healthy boundaries had normalized, resulting in a daughter-in-law who felt disregarded and a mother-in-law who exerted an unhealthy amount of control.

Imagine the difference if boundaries instead been set early on.

As our young adults begin to solidify their values and explore the boundaries they want to draw for their own lives, it’s crucial that we respect those boundaries. What might that look like?