Friday Feature: The Empty Bedroom

If you read any of my blogs, you know that my daughter was home for a week for Thanksgiving break. It was great having her here again, and more awful sending her back to school than I'd expected it to be. I quickly found myself back in countdown mode as I'd been in August, only this time, the countdown would hit single digits much sooner.

The week before she came home, my husband and I had a difference of opinion over her room. He wanted to prepare it for her -- clean it, mostly -- while I argued that it had been her job to clean her own room for years.

Still, on one point we agreed: neither one of us ever considered that bedroom anything but her room.

I do have to admit, though, that I'd considered doing exactly what the dad in this piece did -- using her room as a workspace. I wouldn't move anything out of place -- I'd simply take my laptop upstairs and make myself comfortable at her now empty desk. I thought that might not only give me a change of scenery, but also make me feel closer to her.

In three months, I've sat at her desk exactly once -- and I lasted less than five minutes. It didn't make me sad or wistful or anything like that; it just wasn't quiet enough for me to work there.

I haven't ruled out the change of scenery idea, but on one point, I'm clear.

It's her room.