Empty Nesting Reinventing Your Marriage When the Kids Leave Home [Paperback]

Fighting forYour Empty Nest-Marriage offers clear-cut instructions for dealing with one of the most difficult periods in any marriage. . .the transition period when the children leave home. Based on the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) and the results of a national survey of long-term married couples, this warm and helpful guide is brimming with practical suggestions and wisdom for learning to let-go of the kids and preserving the sense of commitment, love, partnership, sensuality and fun within a marriage.

Acknowledgments ix

Before You Begin: A Personal Note from David and Claudia Arp xiii

Part I: Understanding Your Empty Nest Marriage

1. Meet the Second Marriage of Your Marriage 1

2. Letting Go and Moving On 21

3. Becoming Partner Focused 41

Part II: Handling Conflict in the Empty Nest

4. Communication and Conflict: Four Danger Signs 59

5. Talking It Out: The Speaker-Listener Technique 81

6. Getting Beneath the Surface: Issues Versus Events 105

7. Problem Solving 131

8. Ground Rules for Handling Conflict 159

Part III: Dealing with Empty Nest Issues

9. When What We Want Isn't What We Get 183

10. Applying the Glue of Commitment 203

11. Core Beliefs and Developing Siprtual Intimacy 225

12. Relating to Adult Children and ging Parents 241

Part IV: Feathering Your Own Empty Nest

13. Becoming Empty Nest Lovers 265

14. Building Your Friendship 283

15. Having Fun When the Nest Empties 297

16. Keeping Your Relationship Strong 311

Research References and FurthelC[