Boomerang Child

Like a fair number of adults my age. Ann and I have have been empty nesters for about 2 or so years now. Ever since The Son moved into his condo back in 2007. Being an empty nester has its good and bad points, but we have made the adjustment and have pretty much settled into our own routine. That has all changed as of yesterday. We've now joined another select group - parents of a boomerang child. As Wiki defines it, a boomerang child is one that has moved back in with their parents after a stint of living out on their own for a period of time. Our boomerang child is Daughter#1. She has been living in Connecticut with her husband for several years now. During that time she has obtained work and been subsequently laid off several times. She has worked part time gigs when available. The economy has hurt her and her husband pretty hard. He works in sales and a large part of his income is based on commission. The economy has taken a bite out of his commission income due to lower sales. With Daughter#1 out of work and with his lower salary, they have had a hard time making ends meet. Daughter#1 decided that she needed to go back to school as her Journalism degree wasn't bringing her much in the way of job offers. She has decided she wants to get into nursing. An honorable profession. Unfortunately, a degree in Journalism doesn't get you much in terms of prerequisites to get you into nursing school. In addition, Connecticut doesn't seem to offer as many alternatives in terms of getting into an accelerated nursing program. Virginia offers several alternatives for such a program. Therefore she decided to return home to work on her degree program. Her husband will be joining her shortly, we hope. He has been applying for jobs here in the Washington area and we're hopeful he'll land one soon.

It will be strange for a while having a kid back in the house full time. On one hand it will be nice having help with the dogs and she will also be joining my rowing club. She will be one of the coaches for the Women's competitive team. I know its something she enjoys doing. I just hope the women, who have been known to run off a coach or two in the past with their antics, treat her with some respect. On the other hand, Daughter#1 is notorious with using excessive amounts of hot water and wanting food items not usually on our shopping list. I'm sure it will all work out for the best in the long run. She's already had her first class at the local Community College (Chemistry) as she continues to work on those nasty preregs. I'll give her this, once she has an idea in her head she'll stay focused on it until it's complete. She's the most anal child I've ever known. She has a lot of work ahead of her, but I have confidence she'll manage it.