It comes to everyone who has children, but you might not have seen it coming so soon! If you are a Baby Boomer, chances are, you have children who have left the home or who will be leaving in short order, and you are facing empty nest syndrome. In times past, this phrase meant a time of freedom from many of the responsibilities that you might have taken on in your twenties and thirties and the a new stage in your life, the so-called golden years.

Boomers have rewritten the books on a lot of things, though, and it turns out that the empty nest years are no different. For many people who are looking at the empty nest and noticing all of the new space in their lives, the feelings that are being called forth aren't necessarily happy ones. After you've gotten through the initial peace and quiet, there is a chance that you might find yourself unable to ignore certain questions. Where is your life going to go, and what are you going to do are things that might cross your mind, as well as what sort of place are you looking for in the world.

The departure of your children in many ways means an end to the idea of being young, but when you think about the fact that the Baby Boomer generation in general is staying active a great deal longer than any other before it, and enjoying better health as well, it is obvious that you are not necessarily ready for the quiet days rocking on the porch just yet!

In the past, the idea of an empty nest carried with it a dwindling, the end of an era and also, it was implied, the closing up of your life. It might mean moving to a smaller house, taking less hours at work, going out significantly less, and as you may expect, many are meeting this idea with a great deal of hostility. Baby Boomers tend to resist downsizing or closing out in any way shape or form, and they are looking for ways to continue moving up.

Being an empty nester doesn't necessarily mean the beginning of the end, the way it might have for members of the GI generation. In many ways, the generations that came before were greatly influenced by the specter of poverty and shaky survival, and because of that, it is theorized that they might have welcomed the idea of leisure a great deal more than our current crop of empty nesters. As more and more Boomers start to find themselves in this situation, however, it is easy to see that this generation has no intention of going quietly.