There’s so much fun to be had on (and leading up to) Thanksgiving Day. Here are some ideas!
Julia Roberts is doing her best not to cry at the thought of her three kids no longer living at home.
On the Oct. 1 episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the 57-year-old actress was asked if her husband has caught her crying in one of her kids’ rooms now that she’s an empty nester.
Colbert joked that he had to gently guide his wife out of the bedroom before closing the door and taping it shut when they became empty nesters years ago.
“I don’t know if sobbing now is the best jumping off point to our interview,” Roberts replied with a laugh.
Julia Roberts shares three kids — twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, 20, and son Henry, 18 — with husband Danny Moder, whom she has been married to since 2002, according to People.
Despite feeling emotional about empty nesting, Roberts says the experience has its “fun” moments.
“It’s all fun, honestly. It’s also delicious,” she told Colbert.
“My kids — I know everyone thinks their kids are great, well…” she said as she second-guessed herself. “I think my kids are great.”
According to the Better Health Channel, empty nest syndrome “refers to the grief that many parents feel when their children move out of the home.”
READ MORE: Catherine Zeta-Jones says she and husband Michael Douglas are ‘thriving’ as empty nesters
Common symptoms of an empty nester include redundancy, fear, grief, sadness, guilt, stress, loneliness, irritability, emptiness and powerlessness, per the Cleveland Clinic.
Luckily for her, Julia Roberts’ kids frequently return to their nest for some mom and dad time.
“I love hanging out with them and spending time with them,” she continued. “Fortunately, we have had lots of visits along the way of this empty nest.”
When asked if her kids enjoy her company as much as she enjoys theirs, she joked: “I think they do. They indicate that.”
Julia Roberts isn’t the only celebrity embracing life as an empty nester
Roberts’ experience as an empty nester is similar to what other celebrities have shared recently.
During a Sept. 4 appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” actress Catherine Zeta-Jones opened up about how everyone used to make her feel like empty nesting would be a sad and haunting experience.
“Michael and I are having a great time,” she said of her husband Michael Douglas.
“And the coolest thing is our kids, who are now 25 and 23, like to hang with us. And that’s the best,” she added. “But if I was a kid, I’d want to hang with Michael Douglas too.”
READ MORE: Johnny Depp says he misses being 'Papa' to his now-grown children
Actress Brooke Shields said she felt sad about empty nesting at first, but her feelings quickly changed.
“I’m an empty nester. Then, they came home for Christmas,” Shields said during a Jan. 16 appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”
"It was great, and then, I couldn't wait for them to leave,” Shields admitted. “I was so sad when they left the first time. Then, at the end of Christmas, I’m like, ‘Don’t you have to get back to school?’”
Shields went on to describe the experience as “fabulous” once she got used to it.
“I got past all the crying, I got past all the missing them, and then there was just this sense of freedom,” she says. “It’s not ‘Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom,’ all the time.”
Then again, some parents don’t find the experience all that pleasing.
During an Aug. 17 interview on Hello! Magazine’s “Second Act with Ateh Jewel” podcast, comedian Cally Beaton said she “had a pretty big old collapse” when her children left home.
"They say that you give your kids roots and you give them wings,” she said of empty nesting.
While she doesn’t get to see her kids as often as she’d like — considering how far away from the nest they flew — she eventually learned to turn the experience into a “beautiful thing.”
ALSO ON MOD MOMS CLUB: Cally Beaton opens up about the unexpected ‘grief’ of empty nesting. ‘A part of your life has died’
"All this amazing stuff has come from it. I've never had a more fulfilling career than I have with an empty nest – and friendships, and everything else. But yeah, it's a big change. Just a painful shift,” she said.
