My post in this thread got me thinking. My parents (and one brother, who lives with them) live about 20 miles away from me. My sister and her son live maybe five miles away (if that), and my other brother lives with his SO and their two kids between two and three miles away from me.
I have a half brother I’ve never met. He’s in the Army somewhere and I have no idea where he lives. My grandparents live within 15 miles of each other, the closest being about 43 miles north of me.
With exception to the brother (a big pain in the ass) who lives on his own and so very close to myself, I’m pretty happy with this set up. My mom works about 13 miles north of me and I can see her quite easily any time I want. I’m also able to see my dad on fairly short notice, which is good because he’s a truck driver so I usually get a call the night before saying, “I’ll be home in the AM but I have to leave again on (next day)”. It’s good knowing I can just hop in my car and go over there whenever.
So how close are you to your family, and how does this distance make you feel?
My parents, sister, brother-in-law and nieces are about 120 km away. My brother, sister-in-law and nephews are about 150km in the other direction. I don’t consider them to be all that far away. I just hop on the train when I want to visit.
Interestingly enough, the reason I posted that thread was because of a major life-changing event for me. I had a baby when I was 17 and placed her for adoption. Her 18th birthday came and went without any contact from her. Then last Thursday she contacted me and wanted to meet me. Not only do I (who has no other children) have a 21 year old daughter who wants me to be a big part of her life, I have a five-month old grandson. This has all been a huge emotional event to me (although I knew in the back of my mind it was possible, becoming a grandmother at age 39 is a big shock).The only bad part is she lives about 140 miles (2 and 1/2 hours, with 1 reststop) away from me. I saw her for the first time since she was five days old yesterday. The meeting went great, better than I had ever hoped. I want to make the drive often, maybe even weekly, if I can. She has offered to come to where I live, but she has a little baby and winter is coming, and I feel better driving that distance myself instead of her doing it.
The rest of my family is fairly close. My parents live about 12 miles away, my brother lives 22 miles from me.
I’m separated by a border and 1162 miles from one brother and 3071 miles from the other. I haven’t seen the first in 5 years. He has a son whom I’ve never met, who just started kindergarten this fall. My other brother has the Disney Disease and comes here whenever he can. I saw him last year. In fact he’s down there right now, although he can’t come up and visit me this time. That’s the only family I have.
Coming here was the best decision I’ve ever made; I have all the stuff here that I could never manage to get when I lived up there. That makes me feel wonderful. If not for instant communication and e-mail, the three of us would all be strangers now. I guess everybody does what they have to. Two of us had to move far away to make our living and get what we needed from life; the other stayed where he was and has not made much of anything. That’s why I don’t miss where I came from. If I was still there, I’d be in the same boat I was in before.
None of us can just get up and go visit the other, it’s far too expensive. So we keep in touch electronically.
According to Mapquest I live 1982.75 miles away from my family (parents and three brothers) except for my older brother, who is only about 1907 miles away.
How do I feel about that? This is the first time I’ve been away from home on a long-term basis, and I miss my family terribly. It’s tough having to wait months just to see them for a few days. Phone calls don’t cut it…
I live in Virginia, my mother lives 2 hours away in Richmond. My sister lives in Maryland. My other sister is in Connecticut, an hour away from my father and his family. My grandparents, aunts, uncles etc all live in Kent, England.
My husband’s family is all in California as far as I know.
I live 2141.31 miles (according to Mapquest) from my family in California. I’m jealous of my friends and coworkers who see their parents all the time, but really, no one forced me to move away, I did it on my own, I’m okay, and I do love Chicago. I’d like to move back someday, though, just to be closer to my parents. They won’t be around forever, and if I should ever have any kids, I’d like them to be nearby.
At least here I can fly back fairly easily for a three day weekend. The farthest I’ve ever lived from my family was when I studied abroad in Jerusalem - that’s 7000 miles and ten time zones.
I live 237 miles from my parents and sibs. That may not seem like a lot, but we’re pretty close and I hate being separated by a four-hour drive. I try to get home for a visit whenever a get a three-day weekend at work.
Fortunately I was able to get the entire Thanksgiving week off from work, so I’ll get to spend a little more time with my family then.
I live in Omaha, Nebraska, in the middle of the U.S.
According to mapquest.com I am:
1707 miles from my mom (in Salem, Oregon); 1383 miles from my sister (in Burlington, Vermont); 3538 miles from my dad (in Moose Pass, Alaska) (but really 8-12 hours, depending on layover length, by plane).
How do I feel about that? I think it sucks and it makes me sad. I don’t necessarily want all of them living next door to me, but I would be happy if they lived maybe an hour (or less) away by car.
My parents and sister live a couple of miles away. We moved here partly to be closer to them. My brother and his wife live here, too. My other brothers live 3 hours away and across the country. I wish they were closer.
DangerDad’s folks live about 2 hours away, as do his brother and his wife. Those two families live way too close together, and we wish the brother could move up here. The other brothers live in Japan (too far, but great opportunity for trips) and also 2 hours away.
According to MapQuest, I’m 638.20 miles, door to door, from my parents’ house, and I’d be about the same from one of my brothers, since he lives a couple of miles from my parents. My younger brother is about 2500 miles away from me, and my oldest brother & his wife are the closest, at about 360 miles.
This is the farthest I’ve been since I was at college, about 1,200 miles from my parents. Since then, most of the places I’ve lived have been somewhere around 100 miles from them (By a freak chance, the mileage from my apartment in (north)Atlanta and my apartment in Knoxville registered as the exact same mileage to my parents’ house).
We live in Baltimore, Maryland. 2550 miles and a border to my Mom and step-Dad (Barons, Alberta). 2800 and a border to my Dad and step-Mom (Edmonton, Alberta). 3790 and a border to my sister (Yellowknife, NWT). I only get to see them once a year. This year, actually, my mom and step-dad are coming at Christmas, so yay!
The fact that we live so very far away makes me feel awful. I miss them a whole lot. I’m especially going to be missing them when this baby is born, and won’t know its family outside of my husband’s family - who live within a half-hours’ drive of us.
I’m a Cleveland native who spent most of adulthood in Wyoming and Colorado and now am now living in Lexington Kentucky.
I’m 1892 miles from my mother in Tucson and about the same from my sister.
I’m 2564 miles from my brother in Bremerton WA.
I don’t like it.
But we’re only 182 miles from my in-laws, which was important to us since we now have kids. 3 - 4 hours away from the grandparents is not too bad. Hell would freeze over before I lived in Vincennes Indiana, so this may be about as close as we get to them.
Right now I am in New Zealand and my parents and brother live in Sweden. So, that’s pretty far away. I do go back home in June next year though, so I’m not this far away for too long.
Normally I study in Glasgow, Scotland, though. So, that’s really not very far away. Just a 2 hr. plane trip (which is dirt cheap due to Ryanair flying directly) and I’m home. I only go home for my longer breaks (xmas, summer). Sometimes my Mom wants to visit me so flys down for the weekend.
My sister lives in Minnesota so I rarely see her. We keep in touch via email though.
I don’t mind being far away distance-wise from my family. There are still phones and email if I feel like calling. And there are planes if I would like to visit them (or vice versa). Distance really isn’t an object in my mind - maybe it would have been many years ago, but not any more.
I live about 1500 miles away from most of my family (father, 1 sister, brother and sister-in-law). My other sister lives in Jakarta, Indonesia, about 10,000 miles.
We are all very close, and in regular communication. I don’t need to see them every week to stay in contact.
Hey, you’ll find a way. My family moved 1600+ miles from either of my sets of grandparents plus any other extended family and we still managed to see each other every once in a while. (When I say that we’re the only branch of the family west of the Mississippi, I ain’t kidding.)
