Any empty nester parent will tell you how nice it is to reclaim space in their house as their kids move out. Take Brian and Shannon Campbell of New Haven, Connecticut, for instance: Just weeks after their son left for college, they turned his bedroom into a Boston Market.
Damn. They didn’t waste a second!
The very day Brian and Shannon’s son Justin moved into his Temple University dorm room, the couple went to work putting his furniture and belongings down into the basement and renovating his bedroom into a fully operational Boston Market franchise—industrial kitchen, walk-in freezer, staff, and all. Though they’d previously hinted that they had no intention of letting him use the room as his personal “storage space” once he was on his own, Justin almost certainly didn’t realize they’d be running a Boston Market out of it, with drive-thru service up and running just three weeks into his freshman year of college. Whatever nostalgic keepsakes from his youth he’d planned to hold onto have been swiftly replaced by rotisserie chicken spits and a restroom that’s already unusable, as it’s mainly used by passersby with digestive emergencies who have no intention of buying anything.
In fact, Justin only learned that his childhood bedroom was now a fast casual restaurant this past weekend, when he took an Amtrak home to visit and opened his door to discover a former high school classmate refilling a Boston Market buffet case with a fresh tray of mashed potatoes in the exact same spot his drum kit used to be. There’s truly no heartache in the world like finding out your dad threw out your signed Lil Peep poster and put a C Sanitary Inspection Grade sign in its place.
Oof, what a punch to the gut! These parents are honestly cold as hell, but we have to respect it. Sadly for Justin, when he visits home for the holidays, he’ll be sleeping on a Boston Market counter instead of the bed he grew up with. Poor kid!
