Lillian Rubin

The empty nest syndrome is a depression caused by a woman's children leaving home. In "The Empty Nest" by Lillian Rubin, she interviewed with numerous women whose children left home and she learned that most of them women were positive rather than negative in the leaving of their children. Women feel a door opening when their children leave home; they feel like they can finally make time for themselves and find out who they are again. When women feel relief of their children leaving them, they suddenly feel guilty because they think they should feel more grief. The father tends to feel more grief when a child leaves home rather than the woman. This is because the woman has nurtured the child and provided all the emotional support throughout the child's life, whereas, the father was more financially supportive of the child and had more trouble emotionally connecting. This causes the father to feel grief when the children leave home and he has a hard time letting go. Lillian Rubin's approach was that the empty nest syndrome does not exist.

The empty nest syndrome does not exist because a great majority of the women do not feel grief or depression when their children leave the home. However, they end up feeling a great sense of freedom and relief. What are the fathers' reactions in comparison to the mothers' reaction to the children's departure? How does the ideology of womanhood affect the women's feeling towards the departure of their children? How does finance play a role in the feelings of parents towards their children leaving home? These are the three questions that are brought up from the notes discussed in class. In my article, I will explain how "The Empty Nest" article answers these three questions.