Suddenly facing an empty nest can feel strange at first. What most parents notice immediately is the quiet. Internally, parents often feel adrift in the beginning, experiencing an overnight loss of identity similar to other major changes, such as divorce or retirement. People often feel less distress about the future once they understand that parenthood, which tends to be all-consuming in its immediacy, is just one piece of a lifetime identity. Such recognition helps mitigate empty nest syndrome by allowing adults to reconnect with parts of their identity that may have been neglected during the time they were raising children, such as their relationship with an intimate partner. They may also be invigorated by identifying new roles and interests for the next chapter in their life.