Ways to connect with your out of town grown children

[Anonymous]

Any tips for ones who are adjusting to this new phase of life?

[Anonymous]

Just consider yourself lucky for being in the 21st century. Text with them every day.

[Anonymous]

If you have the kind of relationship where texting everyday is the norm, sure keep it up. But for many ppl, that might be too much.

Call once a week. never early on weekends. Just a quick check in, what's new, kind of conversation. Sometimes it will be a long chat. sometimes not. go with the flow.

What I really hated was whenever my mom started off a conversation with an accusation: Why haven't you called me? The rest of the conversation just could not recover from that.

[Anonymous]

What’s the overall family dynamic? The families that I envy are the ones with ongoing funny group chats. Sharing memes, commentary in life, as well as practical stuff.

Think of your group chats with your best girlfriends.

[Anonymous]

Set up a step-counting competition with them.

[Anonymous]

We have a family book club, we have a family Zoom once a week, the (adult) kids and I text regularly, I still send care packages occasionally, we agree to watch the same shows and then discuss, etc. There are TONS of ways to connect.

[Anonymous]

FaceTime helps

[Anonymous]

Learn how to use gifs and emojis.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, family group chat over text, what’s app, or some other service.

[Anonymous]

Youngest is in college right now, so I don’t know if this will continue into her adult life but definitely endorse the texting andvice above. I dislike phone calls and what feels like an awkward updates. My DD studied abroad in high school and then went on to college and not once during that time did we talk or FaceTime. But we have kept up daily text chitchat about big and small things. Sometimes it’s just me sending her a picture of our dog or something interesting I saw it on a walk, sometimes it’s her stress texting me about things in her life, or asking for advice, or sending pics. But I feel like this keeps us way more connected than a weekly phone call would do, we are fairly up to date on each others life ( I think) and there lots of joking around as well as reaching out about more serious stuff. I hope we keep it going post college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Set up a step-counting competition with them.

This is my favorite with family/friends.

[Anonymous]

We have a group family text thread, but usually it's just me and DH posting on it. My four adults kids don't text much in general, and none of us is on social media.

Every Sunday night I call the kids individually & we chat for a while. They miss it if it gets late and I haven't called yet. Then for the three local kids, I invite them over to dinner a couple of times a month (each separately). For my out-of-town kid, I try to visit a few times a year, and he flies out here a few times a year as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Youngest is in college right now, so I don’t know if this will continue into her adult life but definitely endorse the texting andvice above. I dislike phone calls and what feels like an awkward updates. My DD studied abroad in high school and then went on to college and not once during that time did we talk or FaceTime. But we have kept up daily text chitchat about big and small things. Sometimes it’s just me sending her a picture of our dog or something interesting I saw it on a walk, sometimes it’s her stress texting me about things in her life, or asking for advice, or sending pics. But I feel like this keeps us way more connected than a weekly phone call would do, we are fairly up to date on each others life ( I think) and there lots of joking around as well as reaching out about more serious stuff. I hope we keep it going post college.

+1 for dog videos! We also text about sports. Then I can sneak in a serious question every now & then.

[Anonymous]

I got Snapchat bc they are all on it and I snap pictures of the dog or a restaurant I'm at or DH - whatever is going on that day. And they snap me pictures of their daily life. It works for us!