Our first Christmas as empty nesters

The kids have left home, and we're not really coping, so this seems like the perfect chance to lure them back

My husband and I don't think we have the condition until, one day last month, hundreds of miles from home, we find ourselves outside our younger son's university accommodation at 11.30 on a Sunday morning. I am clutching supplies in a little brown paper bag. Our son knows we're in town, but isn't expecting this rude awakening. It's a surprise.

"Do you think we should have called first?" I say as we approach the entrance, the inappropriateness of what we're doing dawning on me only now.