Despite the rise in tuition fees meaning many teens will have chosen against university this year, there are still hundreds of thousands that will have flown this nest this week.
Relationships on Female First
Extra marital affairs dating site, IllicitEncounters.com saw over 30,000 people sign up to its site this time last year, meaning a 250 per cent increase in sign ups.
Many of those sign ups cited empty nest syndrome as the reason they were looking for an affair, and the website is expected the same to happen again this year.
A survey of their members showed the 50 per cent had experienced empty nest syndrome and 18 per cent of them joined the site for that particular reason.
That means that out of 710,000 members, 128,000 of them joined the site as they felt lonely after having their children leave to move to university.
Spokesperson for IllicitEncounters.com Rosie Freeman-Jones said: “We find that the empty nest syndrome is very common amongst our members, the vast majority of whom are not looking to end their marriage, they are just looking to fill a void.
“This may not have been previously apparent due to other commitments filling their time such as children. When children leave home, the parents find themselves with the free time and are reenergised into trying to fulfil their wants and desires. For some this could mean beginning an extra-marital relationship.”
Rob from Cambridgeshire explained that he joined the site after his daughter left home and he felt there was no longer a connection between himself and his wife.
He said, “My wife and I have been married for over 18 years and it was only until my daughter left that we both realised that she was the only connection we had left between us. I never thought to question the state of my relationship with my wife and looking back, I think all physical and emotional attachments probably left shortly after our girl was born.”
“Since our daughter has left we've talked, we've argued, we've tried to reason things out and the end result is that we are staying together to 'keep up appearances' but without my daughter around, the incredible loneliness has set in: big home, empty rooms, deathly silences. Am I being selfish? Being on here I mean? I know I'm not the only one.”
Rob isn’t the only one, Mrs J from Swindon joined the site when her children left, knowing that her husband no longer found her attractive and felt the need for male attention.
She said, “Empty nest syndrome is quite common and since my children have left home I have discovered I have the time to spend on myself. My husband is no longer interested in me sexually, I am happy with my home life in general; I just crave some male attention.”
Do you have children that have left for university? Would you cheat if you were suffering from empty nest syndrome?
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