Relationships

The emotions of empty nest kick in long before they actually leave, but when your kids leave home, the reality finally sets in.

To care for her ailing 97-year-old father over the past three years, Elizabeth Rodriguez, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, has borrowed against her 401(k) retirement plan, sold her house on Staten Island and depleted nearly 20 years of savings.

Since 2007, the over-50 set has become the fastest-growing group of subscribers for online dating companies, and double-digit growth has continued since, according to industry watchers.

Some forecasters predicted this generation of grandparents would be too self-absorbed to help with child care. But there’s no evidence that today’s grandparents are backing away.

Baby boomers are growing into grandparenthood, but don’t try to saddle them with names like “grandma” and “grandpa.”

I’m a woman who reads the back of cereal boxes, the fine print in warranties, signs in the subway and has owned a library card for more that fifty years!

So to be standing in protest, on the front steps of the New York Public Library looking out toward Fifth Avenue, seemed appropriate.