Welcome to Edit Your Life, a podcast to help you edit the unnecessary from your life so you have more room to enjoy the awesome.

Through episodes with me, Christine Coe, and a range of smart, compassionate guests, you will come away with insights and tactics to help you find the agency in space to simplify and

declutter your home, time, mental space, and more.

Hello, friends. It's kind of amazing because I have known Megan Francis since very early on.

We were old school bloggers together, so met sometime around 2006 or not long after that,

which means we have known each other for nearly 20 years, and we have seen each other through

having babies and raising them into adulthood.

So it is very fitting and wonderful to interview her today, the impetus being her book,

the last parenting book you'll ever read, how we let our kids go and embrace what's next.

In her book, Megan writes, lasts can be sad, scary, and confusing. They can be freeing, exciting,

and wonderful. Often they are both, and in the years leading up to our

children leaving home, they are constant. That duality is something Megan and I talk about in this

conversation, whether it's about dealing with uncertainty, identity shifts, aging, and more.

Let's get right to the conversation.

Hello, Megan Francis. I am so excited to talk to you and see you today. Hello.

Christine, hello. This is always such a delight. I actually just woke up this morning like,

yay, I get to talk to Christine today. So I know. This is my wonderful thing of the day, too. So thank you for

being here. I have so many questions. And congratulations about your new book, which I will be talking

about in the intro. And I want to get right to it because I have a bunch of questions for you.

Absolutely. Okay. Great. I would like to actually start by reading a quote. Not sure if that'll be weird hearing your words read back to you, but here we go.

I'm here for it. You write. No matter where you are in your parenting journey right now, two things are certain. You can't ever go back to any of the stages that came before. And where you're going is often a mystery. I think of the transition from

early active motherhood to the next stage as going from arms full to hands free. And it's what

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