The "last thing".....a feeling of freedom that you only get when your kids aren't under your wing
Locust Fork
Member Posts: 32,005 ✭✭✭✭
I still get the call...."MOM, can you help".....from all of them but, last week I realized I am no longer officially paying for anything other than the health insurance that my son is still young enough to be on. I didn't think about the car insurance until I got the packet in the mail with the new cards for the vehicles. My son sold his truck a few weeks ago when he bought the motorcycle. He ended up getting a car, motorcycle, and some cash for his truck. The truck was eating gas like crazy and he really didn't need it for any "truck" purposes.
He was on our policy because I just never took him off from when he started driving. My rates dropped by a pretty decent amount. He's 24 with a pretty good driving record. I think there is a speeding ticket that was old enough to be dropped, but I'm not sure really.
I got a little "rush" when I did it. I got the same little perk when I first dropped my oldest daughter from our cell phone plan....that was the very first bill I took a child off. The car insurance will be the last thing I actively take one of them off of.
I feel like there should be some sort of ritual.....a special feather in my cap.....a special color only "empty nesters" are allowed to wear.....maybe a ceremony where other parents lay gifts at your feet and smile knowing their ceremony is in the near future.
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Someday I will achieve this goal. The rationale #3 uses to remain on my cell plan is that I need four devices to get a discount.
Back when I took my oldest off our plan it was when they monitored everything in such a way that you were constantly dinged for overages....so, I was pretty excited to have her monitoring her usage with her own money. At that time all three of mine were constantly causing us to be charged crazy fees. When my son moved in with a girl some time ago he got a plan with her and learned a valuable lesson when they broke up and she was monitoring everything on his phone.
my oldest daughter {50} just had her husband leave her and her teenage daughter for a younger woman. talked her into signing over the house and everything else to him. so she was left on the street with nothing. she has a decent job but not enough income to pay the all the bills. i didnt hear about this until it was all over, and she had maxed out her three credit cards just trying to live. if only she had talked to me sooner i could have helped out for a lot less than this is costing me now. she's a really good person with no other bad habits other than picking the wrong man to share her life with. she is the one out of four i never had to worry about until now. so yes i will help the best i can but it is a burden i did not expect or plan for.
They are always our babies, no matter their age.
Oh, I will ALWAYS be here for mine. They are just now really old enough....actually a little older than they should have been....to expect them to even think about planning for themselves. I figure my daughter will need my car about the time I get it paid off since they are a one income family with small children. Her car is older and I'm trying to wrap my mind around when this happens so its not such a shock when I take over payments on another car. My hopes are that someday everything I've worked for will become theirs someday....not sold off to pay for my final expenses. I'd get a lawyer involved in that ordeal. He owes her BIG TIME.
Just wait until you're old enough for them to take care of you. 😉
It is a good feeling.....I remember writing the last check for my youngest son's final semester of college. It had been a long ride with two of them in college overlapping for a couple years. It was a worthwhile investment that we had planned for since the day they were born....
Ten years later they have both been self sufficient, employed and productive members of society since finishing their educations. ....That is what we always wanted for them...
Now that we are grandparents, I gotta reel myself in a little because I want to give her everything !!!
Sorry Kasey, but this just popped in & I can't resist.
A man hands his daughter a child support check & says, "Tell your mother I've been paying for 18 years & this is the laaast check. Then come back & tell me what she said."
The girl came back & told him, "Momma says your not my daddy." 🤬
I guess I am really lucky. Our daughter and her husband both have great jobs, grandson is an engineer for the Corps of Engineers, granddaughter and her husband are gainfully employed as property managers for a big apartment corporation in Dallas.