Episode 1: What The Quiet Years Actually Are
A lot of people don’t really warns you about this part of parenting.
You hear about the early years. You hear about empty nest. But there’s a stage in the middle that mostly gets skipped over, or bundled into labels that don’t quite fit. This episode is about that stage.
The Quiet Years start when your child doesn’t need you in the same way anymore. They’re walking to school alone. Spending more time in their bedroom. Going out with friends. Choosing not to come food shopping with you. It happens slowly, and then one day you’re doing something you used to do together and you realise how different it feels now.
That’s where it begins.
In this episode Sarah talks about what The Quiet Years actually are, why this stage gets missed, and why it matters that we start talking about it now, before empty nest, before midlife, while things are still steady enough to do something with.
In this episode:
What The Quiet Years are and when they start
Why this stage gets bundled into empty nest or midlife crisis, and why that isn’t quite right
What happens to your identity when the role you’ve built yourself around starts to change
Why the feeling of something being off doesn’t go away on its own
The one question worth sitting with at the end
The question Sarah leaves you with:
Who are you, without your job, your family, or the fact that you’re a parent?
You don’t have to answer it out loud. Just sit with what comes up.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Quiet Years Orientation Guide, the best place to start if you want to understand this stage more. It’s Free!
Link below.