Joanna Gaines Gets Emotional as She Sends Her 2 Eldest Children Off to College: ‘I Love You Kids So Much'

Yahoo

2 days ago

HGTV star Joanna Gaines has asked for advice from her fellow parents about how to "embrace change" in the home after her eldest daughter headed off to college for her freshman year—joining the reality TV legend's son in moving out of the family home.
Joanna, 47, who shares five kids with her husband and co-star, Chip Gaines, 50, took to Instagram to share her emotional response to the bittersweet milestone, questioning how she can continue to "hold [her kids] close" while also "letting them go."
Sharing a photo of her eldest son's room filled with boxes and suitcases, Joanna examined the many feelings that she was grappling with after her son Drake, 20, and daughter Ella, 18, both left the nest.
"They told me it would go by quicker than I think. That the days are slow but the years are fast. And darn it if they were right. This beautiful gift of time has roared past us all just like I was told," she wrote.
"My oldest son left for his third year of college while my oldest daughter packs for her first year across the country.
"This season already feels like one big, breathless surrender. Lord, how do I hold them close while also letting go?"
Joanna went on to note that, while she feels a strong desire to keep her kids with her, she knows that they are "made for more" than they can experience inside the family's Waco, TX, home.
"Help me to embrace change with a heart filled with hope for the part I know to be truer than the rest—my kids and I may have been made for each other, but I also believe they were made for more. More experiences, more knowledge, more growing than could ever happen within our walls," she added.
The mother of five concluded her post with a message to other parents who have yet to experience what it's like to have a child leave home.
"To all the parents packing up and moving kids to new places, and to all those with years still to spare: hold them close, hold them well, and let's all lean on each other when the time comes to hold it together," she said.
The night before the big farewell, Joanna revealed that the family was sharing one last meal together, posting a video of the fun-filled dinner at their farmhouse.
In the clip, the family of seven could be seen turning out some homemade pizzas in the wood-burning oven in their backyard, before heading into their immaculately decorated dining room to tuck into the feast.
After the meal, Joanna pulled all five of her kids in for a group hug outside their home—before treating herself to a ride on her youngest son's mini motorbike, joking in the caption that it made her "feel like a kid again."
"Gulp. Last dinner together before our oldest heads back to college and our second is about to leave home for her freshman year," the Magnolia mogul wrote.
"Thankful for the group hug and all the puppies to help me work through my wide range of emotions. And also Crew's motor bike, it made me feel like a kid again. I love you kids so much."
It is not the first time that Joanna has shed light on the difficulty she's experienced in coming to terms with her children aging. In July, she revealed that she knew it was going to be harder to watch her daughter move out than it had been when Drake left two years earlier.
"Ella, our second kiddo, she's graduating this year. So we're going through that again with another kid leaving the nest and trying to stay emotionally stable," the mother of five explained, prompting Chip to ask: "Do you think this is going to be harder [than it was with Drake]?"
"Yes. I think there's an emotional difference," she conceded.
Because she and Ella tend to spend more time together during the day, she admitted that she was going to feel a much bigger hole in her life than she did when her son moved out.
"With Ella, we love to go to antiques shops, plant shops, and go get coffee—that's our rhythm. I kind of feel like I'm losing a friend in my everyday life," she said.
As for Ella, Joanna admitted that her daughter couldn't wait to head off to college, particularly because the new setting will give her a chance to establish her own identity, away from her parents' fame.
"She's excited about going somewhere and just being known for her," the Magnolia Network star revealed. "She's like, 'I don't want anyone knowing that you're ... I just want to go and be myself.'"
Establishing an identity outside of her parents' fame—and their popular Magnolia lifestyle brand—is no easy feat for any of the kids, particularly given that the family's hometown of Waco is overrun with the Gaineses' many businesses.
The couple even have their own page on the official Waco website, which calls attention to the many companies that they run out of the town, including Magnolia Home, Magnolia Realty, Magnolia Market, Magnolia Seed & Supply, Silos Baking Co., Magnolia Press, Magnolia Seed + Supply, The Shops at the Silos, and multiple rental properties.
Chip and Joanna are credited with turning Waco into a tourist hot spot. Many of their fans regularly travel to the area to visit one of their many stores or renovation projects—and perhaps even catch a glimpse of the celebrity couple.
Speaking to People, the couple opened up about how they have balanced their business empire with prioritizing their private lives, noting that they've been making a concerted effort to focus on spending time with family, particularly in recent years.
In August 2024, Joanna hinted that she was planning to take a step back from the day-to-day running of Magnolia.
She had become overwhelmed with the "chaos" in her life, she wrote in an essay in the couple's Magnolia Journal magazine.
"I'm a fixer, a refiner—and in some ways I've made a career out of sharpening the instinct that draws my eye toward the off-balance and out of sync," the HGTV star wrote in her "A Note From Jo" essay.
"The part that can be harder is the pausing. Looking curiously at the chaos of my own busy life to try to create some order or fine-tune a few too-familiar ways of living that may no longer serve me."
She added: "In the end, here's what I'm hoping for: the beauty of what we'll see with this little bit of clarity. There may be some discomfort and awkwardness at first. But slowly, truth fills the space we're making. Maybe something does need to change. Or maybe you realize that you're already living the life you dreamed of. You only needed clearer eyes to see it."
Though the Gaineses continue to churn out project after project—including Joanna's recently released series, "Mini Reni," and their recently released show, "Back to the Frontier"—they are also finding time to have some fun with their five kids, taking a recent trip to St. Lucia, where they soaked up plenty of scenery.
"Truth is, we're all homebodies," Joanna confessed. "But as our kids get older, I've learned what a gift it is to get away and have that intentional time as a family. Being present is what we're after—so we limit phones, pick a few games or hikes that everyone is excited about, eat together for every meal, and toss the schedule out the window."
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