Anonymous wrote:My parents currently live 7 hours away in the medium sized town where I grew up. In the 6 years that I've lived in DC post-college, they've visited me (and later my wife, since we got married) at most twice a year, and the older I get, the more it bothers me. They are comfortably middle class, so money isn't really the issue. Their health is fine. My dad is retired, but does consulting work part-time, remotely, and on a flexible schedule. My mom is a higher up at a small non-profit, but it's a work situation where she doesn't have set hours, and as long as she gets everything done, she's not tied to specific hours. My mom also does alot of volunteer work in the community and for our church. It should also be mentioned that they don't visit my two brothers, who live 4 and 5 hours from them, respectively, in major cities, very often either (probably two times each in the past year or so).
The kicker as of late is that they've really been guilt tripping me about us visiting them, and how they never see us. Wife and I both have busy schedules both in and out of work. I have a pretty limited PTO situation, and wife sometimes works off hours, so it's considerably harder for us to get away to see them than vice versa.
Anyways, the older that I'm getting, the more this bothers me. Whenever I ask about my parents visiting, they always hit me with the "oh, we're just crazy busy!" Am I right to be upset about this?
So, you don't go to visit them, but they come to see you twice a year? And they also see your brothers twice a year? So, they are travelling six times a year to see their kids, and you guys are travelling to see them...how often?
I think you are unreasonable. They have their own lives: work, friends, church, volunteer work. They have other obligations. They ARE busy. It is not unreasonable for them not to want to travel every month.