Just like a mama bird gently pushing her babies out of the nest, it is time for parents to send their children off to college.
But this leaves parents and siblings with a missing piece of their brood — hence, the excitement and sadness of the "empty nest."
"I didn't know what to expect," said Beth Weikel, mother of Elizabeth Hood, who headed off to Clemson University on Saturday.
It's been a summer of mixed emotions, she said.
"She and I had gotten closer this year," she said. "It's just a missing hole; the family will be missing (her)."
Elizabeth admitted to feeling butterflies, too, as moving day approached.
"At first I was so excited; I was ready to get out of here," she said. "Gainesville is such a small town. I was ready to go and make new friends, and now that it is getting closer I am sad — ending friendships, relationships - it is just sad."
But while the baby bird leaving the nest can seem traumatizing to some parents, psychologists advise parents to think of the larger picture.
"If (parents) came into my office, I would tell them that although your feelings are absolutely natural and normal, they can mimic symptoms of depression, and I would probably review with them what the symptoms of depression are like," said Gainesville psychologist Mark King. "I would try to get them to embrace the idea that this is a developmental issue and that as much as developmental issues are difficult to navigate, the most important part to take into consideration is that it is a natural rite of passage."
There's no use ignoring the symptoms.
Wayne Brown, a father of two daughters from Dahlonega, dropped off his youngest daughter, Ashley, at Augusta State on Aug. 7. He said it was unexpectedly difficult for him to send off his last child.
"I was just thinking it would be no big deal," Brown said. "She would just be going off to school. But on the way home ... I stopped and got some gas and when I pulled off I just started thinking about growing up with all the kids and stuff like that and next thing you know it is two hours later and I still didn’t have the radio on, I was still thinking.
"I think I thought of everything from their birth to everything to when they left, it felt like it was a movie or something ... now they are gone."
Elizabeth is the first of Beth’s three children to head off to college. This leaves siblings Bill Hood, 12, and Maggie Hood, 14, also dreading their big sister’s departure.
"There won’t be anybody to cover for me for four years," Bill said about his overprotective big sister, Elizabeth.
Maggie added, "I won’t have anybody to talk to, like girl talk to ... I could call her, but I know she’ll be busy with school."
There also are ways to help the younger siblings by honoring their feelings and moving past them.
King said to make sure they understand that the experience is a positive one and tell them things such as, "This is a great experience for your sibling and I know it is sad but you have something to look forward to as well, because look at all the things that are going to happen for your sibling," he said.
Or, explain "You are not losing a sibling, but the quantity of time you are going to spend with them is going to be different — but the quality may actually get better."
Lillee Clark, a Gainesville psychologist, said parents should feel OK about their child heading off to school as long as they began preparation a couple of years ago.
"There’s this continuum of trust as to whether the child is safe in their ability to socially navigate, to self-manage their affairs, versus that fear that the world is just going to swallow them up," Clark said. "The trick is to start at 15 and 16 trusting your child and teaching them how to socially manage that so that when they get to the point of launch they have more confidence in their ability and will likely be more successful."
And Clark gives this advice professionally and personally as she prepares to send off her youngest child to college on Tuesday.
"I am feeling a little bit of the stress because there are so many things that I want to do now that my children leave," she said. "You have another whole set of stressors that you really never had to face before, once you leave parenting mode you have to go to preretirement mode — and how am I going to organize my time to do something meaningful?"
As Elizabeth starts her new life as a pre-veterinary student at Clemson, Beth said she just hopes her daughter fully enjoys this new stage of her life.
"With the way that she has handled herself and the way she has grown up this summer, I feel 1,000 times better about her leaving," she said. "Honestly, the thing I have heard (from other parents) most is, ‘I wish I could go back and do that again.’ So part of it (is) excitement ... for her because that was, to me, the best time of my life."