How often do you see out of town families?

[Anonymous]

Just wondering how often you guys see out of town families. Both DH and my parents live about 3-4 hours away. We have 2 little girls, ages 3 and 5, and typically see our families every 4-6 weeks (either us going there or them coming here). Sometimes I feel like that’s great, but other times I feel badly that we are not doing more. Would love to hear other thoughts. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

My sister is 6 hours away and we get together 3-4 times a year, including either Christmas or Thanksgiving. My parents are 6 1/2 hours away and we go 3-4 times a year. They only come if we are hosting Christmas or Thanksgiving. We see DH's family 1-2 times a year they are 2-4 hours away.

[Anonymous]

My ILs live five hours away. On average we see them once a month. My parents are a plane ride away and we see them at least twice a year

[Anonymous]

How sad.

[Anonymous]

We see the ILs who live 2-3 hours away about every six weeks or so. It's not necessarily for the whole weekend due to work schedules, unless it's the holidays.

My parents live a plane ride or very long drive away, and we see them about 4 times a year, give or take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering how often you guys see out of town families. Both DH and my parents live about 3-4 hours away. We have 2 little girls, ages 3 and 5, and typically see our families every 4-6 weeks (either us going there or them coming here). Sometimes I feel like that’s great, but other times I feel badly that we are not doing more. Would love to hear other thoughts. Thank you!

About the same as you. One set is 2 hours away (but they are old so we are always the one making the trip to see them), and the other is 9 hours away.

[Anonymous]

Uhh, my inlaws are an hour away and I try to see them no more than every 4-6 weeks. Sometimes it's more, very rarely less. I think you're doing just fine with a 3-4 hour trip each time!

I've always told my in-laws if they want to see us more, they are welcome to come visit. They don't, so I dropped the guilt even when they lay it on us.

[Anonymous]

"I've always told my in-laws if they want to see us more, they are welcome to come visit. They don't, so I dropped the guilt even when they lay it on us."

^ this.

never accept guilt if someone is doing less than their 50% ~ unless they are elderly,etc

[Anonymous]

MIL lives 5 minutes away and doesn't bother. But then again, she doesn't like herself.

[Anonymous]

DH's family is a plane trip away - 2x a year. My family is 1-2 hr drive - 1-2 times a month.

[Anonymous]

One set of grandparents are across the country, and the other is about six hours away (driving).

I'd say roughly every two months we see one or the other.

[Anonymous]

We have one set a 6 hour flight and another set a 6 hour drive.

We see the 6 hour flight ones 2-3x a year, at max. Our kid did terribly on our last trip to them, so we are back to not traveling there anymore for the time being. Plus, it's really expensive to buy 3 plane tickets.

We see the 6 hour drive ones every other month or so, more in the summer than winter since they live in a beach community that we enjoy visiting.

[Anonymous]

My family is all about 7 hours away. Now that DS is in school, I'm stuck to traveling during spring break, summer or holidays. I go home maybe once or twice a year. My Mom usually comes to see me once a year. I have a couple nephews that I foot the bill for them to come visit since my sister, their Mom, passed a few years ago. They come once a year. Part of the problem it that everyone in my family has pets and my oldest is allergic to dogs, so the trip home also means a hotel stay. I want to go home next month for Spring Break, but was just laid off so it might not happen. I wish the boys could see their cousins more often, but it's just not possible. Also, I have quite a few adult nieces/nephews that are perfectly capable of traveling yet don't make the effort. DH has 11 brothers/sisters so there are TONS of cousins on that side of the family, many older than DH, and NONE of them make an effort to visit, not even the one in Raleigh. Unless they want something, of course.

[Anonymous]

My family is "in town" but an hour away. DC sees them sometimes bi-weekly, sometimes once every three weeks. It just depends on how busy we are and we see each other often enough we don't feel the need to schedule regular visits. In-laws are a 10 hour drive and expensive flight away; we go there about 1x or 2x a year and they come here about 3x a year. At most, we'll see them 6 or 7 times but it's probably 4-5x during normal years.

[Anonymous]

My ILs are a 10-hour car drive away and we try to see them 2x/year.

My parents live about 30 mins away and we see them often.