Parent of Adults is a newsletter about life after the kids grow up.
They grow up! I mean, we knew this would happen, right?
Of course we did. And it’s wonderful. But it’s also… weird.
My kids adults live out of state — one’s a college senior; the other’s a college graduate living and working in the Midwest.
I love, and I mean love, being the parent of young adults, and assumed I was prepared for the shift when they moved out. But this next iteration of family life has been way more than a shift.
Empty nesting is a whole new world.
Everything’s different: parenting, my marriage, my work, my home, my friendships, my community, my identity, my sense of purpose...
This is both thrilling and unsettling, to say the least. 🤯
Parent of Adults is my invitation to compare notes on life beyond the empty nest.
Empty nesting (for me) is more complicated than the cultural stereotypes led me to believe. It reminds me of how I felt as a new parent wondering is it like this for anyone else???
I started this newsletter for two reasons:
To reflect on my empty nesting experience
To hear about yours
Parent of Adults is my invitation to swap stories as we grow into new versions of our families and ourselves.
This is place to hang out with other kind, curious people without being bombarded by ads, algorithms, or the randomness of social media.
The details of our lives are sure to differ, but I’m betting we have a lot in common, too. My guess? We’ll discover we’re not alone — and we never were.
About me
I’m Asha Dornfest, a writer and parent of two young adults.
I’ve been writing books since the mid-90’s and blogging since the early aughts. My beloved community blog of 10+ years, Parent Hacks, inspired my book Parent Hacks: 134 Genius Shortcuts for Life with Kids (Workman, 2016).
Before Parent Hacks, I co-wrote Minimalist Parenting: Enjoy Modern Family Life More By Doing Less (Routledge, 2013) with my friend Christine Koh. This led to our co-hosting 250+ episodes of the award-winning podcast, Edit Your Life. After five years, I retired from co-hosting, and the pod continues to thrive as a solo show by Christine.
My husband, Rael, and I have lived in Portland, Oregon for over 20 years. We love it here. My mom moved here in early 2020 after my dad died unexpectedly. Grief and the pandemic upended and rearranged all our lives. We’re adjusting and healing, together.
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Why pay when this newsletter is mostly free?
Paid subscriptions sustain my writing in two ways. The financial support is straightforward, but there’s more to it: a paid subscription is a concrete expression of partnership that says I appreciate your work and want to help you keep doing it.
Here are a few more ways to think about paid subscription:
A paid subscription is a way to participate in the creative ecosystem of writers and readers.
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A paid subscription affirms that art, writing, and creative community are worth investing in.
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However you choose to participate here — by reading, commenting, spreading the word, or upgrading to a paid subscription — I’m truly grateful.
