teenage-free - meaning [closed]

Question

I would like to dedicate my portions of this book to my wonderful wife, Dawn Etta Riley. She has been supportive of me in my personal endeavors, and although some of them don’t pay off, she still supports my efforts of the ones that do. I love you, Dawn, and look forward to the teenage-free years with you. To our children, too, I would like to dedicate this effort: Daniel Tomas Walker, Charity Margaret Marie MacIntyre, Michael Peter Walker, and Simon Peter MacIntyre (just to get their names in print).

Could you please explain what the expression teenage-free years means?

Answer 1

It refers to the time when the author and his wife will no longer have teenagers in their life. Presumably, this means that their many children will have grown up and the couple are now entering their later years.

The "-free" suffix nearly always means "without". "Childfree" means "without children"; "sugar-free" means "without sugar" and so on. "Teenager-free" is not an exception.