The old empty nest might not be such a bad thing. A professor from the University of Missouri recently conducted a study to examine parent-child relationships and found that there were positive changes in the way parents interacted with their newly independent children. Also, there were very few differences between the way mothers and fathers interacted with their adult children, rebuffing the idea that mothers fall apart and experience a depressing empty-nest syndrome.

The study interviewed 142 sets of parents and their first-born sons and daughters. Some things that do change once the kids fly the coop, as reported by the parents, were that parents were able to relate more like peers to their kids and acted as mentors giving advice rather than authority figures making demands. Hardly any parents reported any type of change in the emotional support they offered their children. And of course, financial assistance continued for the majority of young adult children. So it seems, the more things change…the more they stay the same, kinda.