Reply to want to move, but worried about leaving family

Forum Index » Family Relationships

Reply to "want to move, but worried about leaving family"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]If you are pretty close to your family, which is sounds like you are based on how often you see them, then living far away can kind of suck. I used to live 3 hours from my parents and siblings when I lived in DC. And although that was "away" it was close enough to drive up for smaller events like a bridal shower or Mother's Day or a graduation if we wished. We always visited for the bigger holidays, no question. My parents would visit us for the kids' birthdays or a random weekend trip. Overall, we probably saw my family 8-10 times per year.

When my kids were elementary age, we moved, and we are now about 7-8 hours away. It is a full day of driving with traffic and stops, so driving up for the weekend is not really an option. We really need to do 3 nights - like driving up Friday and coming home on Monday. Flying is optional but expensive for a family of 5. So basically, we visit twice per year - once in the summer and once at Thanksgiving, and we do an annual family beach trip. We also go in for bigger events like my niece's wedding, but we miss smaller events like my nephew's graduation party.

Parents have been visiting us about 2-3 times per year and usually try to combine them with a special events that are happening in our family like a child's birthday or elementary school graduation. But they also miss out on a lot of our kids' events.

My siblings rarely make the trip. In the 9 years that we've lived here, each sibling has been here 3 times, twice were for special events. So I'd say overall, we see my parents about 6 times per year and my siblings 3-4 times per year, with my family doing the traveling for 3-4 of those times.

As my parents age - they are now in their early 80s - I think all of their trips to visit us are now done. My mother has had recent health issues, and it has been really hard to be away from them during that, and not being able to help out. On the other hand, my kids are older, too (all teenagers), so it's much easier for me to fly up there by myself if needed.

Having said all that, we didn't move here because it was our dream location. We moved here for a job, and as a bonus, my husband's mother lived about an hour away, which was very helpful when she got sick. She has since passed on, and with the job now remote and us getting closer to retirement age, we are currently contemplating moving closer to my family when the last kid graduates high school.

Sorry for the book, this topic has been on my mind a lot lately, and your question brought out my feelings about it. Good luck with whatever you decide! [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics