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Word of the Day: Empty nester
This term has been around since the early 1960s, so it is not an old term nor a new one.
An empty nester is a person whose children have grown up and left the nest (home), and now the parents are left in an empty house (nest) that is finally quiet.
For some mothers and fathers, the sudden quiet of an empty home can be unsettling, a stark contrast to the lively chaos they were used to.
Then again, other parents are happy that their children have flown the coop, and they enjoy their newfound freedom.
It’s common in Canada for empty nesters to downsize to a more modest house or apartment so that their home does not feel so empty.
Plus, the smaller home will feel cozier when the grandchildren come to visit.
These days, the number of empty nesters is rising dramatically in most Western countries.
I’ve heard from some of my students that there are good and bad points to finally having an empty, quiet home.
I’ll leave it up to you to think about those points.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 75.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.