On Liveline, caller Mary contacted Joe, curious to see if other parents living alone after their children had left were feeling the same way she was.
"I'm on my own about a year and a half. I'm finding it quite difficult. It's not being on my own that is the problem. The problem is my children. I've three children who work away from home, and I feel that they feel that I am a burden if I would like them home at the weekends. I feel that they resent me because I would like to see them at the weekend."
Mary's call sparked a heartfelt discussion on Thursday's Liveline. Anne rang in to empathise with Mary and to her share her experience.
"Naturally she's going to feel very lost and lonely when they leave. I'm in a similar situation to her and they don't come at weekends and I don't ask them to come. I think if you have too much expectation, you're going to be disappointed. I would say to Mary that I can't think of anything more she could do that would make them enjoy coming to her because they already know that she loves having them and that they're not intruding on her but I would say to Mary herself that maybe she should get a little bit more independent of her children."
Anne certainly feels Mary's pain.
"I dread the weekends and especially the bank holiday weekends. I lost 2 friends during the year that I used to socialise with at the weekend and since that, the weekends are just horrible. I try to fill in my time by going shopping and going places but there's only a certain amount of places you can go to on your own. I'd love to go to the theatre or the Concert Hall but you'd really love somebody to go with."
Another Mary then contacted the show to share the offer that she has made but that her children have yet to take up.
"The offer is that they can have the house and I'd have a granny flat and they can still have an independent life in the house, now, not when I die."
Mary blames the pace of modern life for the loneliness she is experiencing now that her children have left.
"They're under so much pressure… They have to work so hard to have a life themselves which is totally different than years ago when there was a granny and a grandpa in the corner in a house and the little children would be always with (them). It's not like that anymore because families are not at home, their houses are empty all day and they have to even put their children to be taken care of because they have to work to provide for their families. It's so expensive in this country, that's the main reason, and family life is dying out."
Caller Bridget felt the same when her grown-up children left home
"I can totally empathise with Mary, it is lonely, but at this stage, I've realised we can't live our lives through our children. Yes, it's lovely to see them but they have their lives. When we were their age, we didn't want to be around our parents. We didn't understand the situation… It's only when we become a parent that we realise we could have been kinder or better to our parents."
Click here for the full conversation.