My parents are 4,508 miles away. My son is 709 miles away. My aunts are 1,964 and 1,866 miles away. I hate it more than anything. I grew up only a few miles from both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles. The nostalgia I feel for those days is painful to say the least.
The only saving grace is my husband and daughter. But it also helps to have my sister-in-law, her wonderful husband and the only niece & nephew I’ll ever have (by marriage, though) 52 miles away, my father-in-law is 19 miles away, and my mother-in-law is 362 miles away.
Well, at least our daughter will know her elders via technology (cell phone/imagestation.com/email). How depressing. She’ll never know what I enjoyed as a child.
Currently, I’m less than 50 feet away from my immediate family (mom, dad, sister). I still live here.
My extended family, including both sets of grandparents, five sets of aunts and uncles, and four of seven cousins all live within a fifteen or twenty minutes’ drive. The other cousins are still in the general region, probably around an hour and a half or two hours’ drive.
I’m in Ohio. My parents are in Arkansas. My sister is in Texas. My brother is in Maryland.
That’s what happens when you move around a lot. The kids drop where they land. Then the parents go back to where they started and keep complaining that we never visit. Also a lot of angst about not being around to see the grandkids grow up.
Let’s see, when I moved to Ohio 18 years ago my parents lived in Austin, Texas. Then they moved to the Manassas, Virginia area where they lived in a townhouse, a house, then rented a house. Then they moved to Arkansas where they have lived in four houses, I believe. They claim that this is their last house. Really.
I’m in the same place for 18 years. And it’s not far enough away. Thinking about moving north because they compalin that they can’t visit Ohio after September because it gets too cold. I’m thinking North Dakota. Or Canada. Maybe Greenland.
My mom and my older sister and her family still live in our hometown which is about an hour and a half from Atlanta; our other sister and her husband live in Hilton Head, SC so it is about five and a half hours to visit them.
My husband’s parents live in Huntsville, AL which is about 3 and a half hours. His sister and her family live in Houston, TX which is usually a plane trip or on occasion a 13 hour or so car trip.
My daughter is now back in Atlanta (yayyy!!) after being 1900 miles away for 5 years in graduate school. I enjoy having her just across town even more because I fully expect her to move away again at some point.
We’re lucky that we are close enough to actually visit often, but I agree with Lamar Mundane – you can still stay close even with distance between you.
And Doctor Jackson – “Everybody is Somebody in Snellville!” It’s very pretty out there so I can see why you are in no hurry to leave. My boss lives in Snellville and over the years has “almost” moved closer into the city several times because of her killer commute – but she always backs out.
Five years ago, I lived in the same house as three of my children, three blocks (5 minutes’ walk) from my father, and about 160 kn from my oldest son.
Now, I live about 9,500 km away from all of them, because I moved across the world to a better job, and I only see them every one or two years. I miss them a lot.
I’m in Tokyo, and my parents and sister live just outside of Toronto, so that’s more than 10000km. My brother lives in London, so that’s probably close to the same. Miss my siblings a bunch.
Next year I’m moving to Sydney, so I think I’ll be even further away. I’m starting to get the “When are you coming back home?” guilt trip from my mother.
My husband and I are both within 45 minutes drive of all our parents and siblings. This is fine with us, as none of them are close enough to be a bother to us, but close enough to see when we want to.
I’m about 1700 miles away from my parents right now (what with being away at school). Only about 300 miles from my sister, but that’s likely to change hugely when she graduates this spring.
My dad’s family is nearly all in Maryland (about 3 hours drive from “home”). My mom’s is almost all in Ohio, about an eight/nine hour drive from “home”.
I am 1,700 miles away from everyone I am related to - parents, siblings, grandmothers, aunts, etc. - with the exception of one aunt, who lives about 900 miles away, but with whom I’ve never been close.
Me - Chicago suburbs
Dad/Stepmom - Quad Cities
Mom/Stepdad/Sister - Tulsa, OK
Oldest Brother/SIL/niece - Orlando, FL
Older Brother/SIL/niece - Los Angeles, CA
Older Sister - ? (long story - last I heard NYC, possibly on her way to Bangladesh)
I’m about 150 miles from my kid brother, and about 1200 miles from my two sisters, and 2000 miles from my older brother, and an unimaginable void away from my mom and dad, who have both gone to that great beyond.
I’m a Midwesterner, so I measure in time rather than distance.
I live about 2-3 minutes away from 6 of my 10 siblings. Two others live within 10 minutes, and the last two each live about 30 minutes away. Most of their kids live in this general area, too.
The in-laws are also about 30 minutes away, so my kids get to see their extended families a lot. As much as we are sometimes tempted to move, we do like that very much and so probably won’t go anywhere until they are grown.
I’m about 2 hours driving away from my parents, grandmother, my sister and her family. Close enough, but not too close.
I’m about 6 hours away from my brother. He’s not close enough, in my opinion. Or, I’m not.
Aunts, uncles and cousins are spread out. One cousin lives 2 miles from me, another in Alaska. A lot of them I’m not in touch with, and don’t have a clue where they are.
My parents and kid brother live in Haifa, about an hour’s drive away. I see them every week or two.
My sister suffers from a severe case of wanderlust, and is currently somewhere on the India-Nepal border (I think - I never really know where she is). She usually lives with my parents for three or four months a year while saving up for her next trip.
Having recently moved closer to my family home I’m now about 3.5mins walk away from my mother, father and sister. My aunt lives next door to them and the rest of my family all live in Dublin which isn’t that big so they’d all be within a half and hour drive away.
My closest family is the in-laws, who live 7 hours from here. My closest blood family would be my brother/SIL/niece, who live 9 hours from here. My parents, grandparents, and the bulk of my aunts and uncles are 10 hours away, give or take. In other words, it’s a hellaciously long drive to just go for a couple of days, and in order for flying not to be real friggin’ expensive, we’d have to drive a couple hours to larger airports on both ends, much further for my inlaws. So we get home two or three times a year, mostly. It sucks.
There’s phones and email and such, but they’re vastly inferior to actually being there. It doesn’t help that most of my family is the sort who think the roads, phone lines, and net only run in one direction, so if I don’t visit, call, or write, we don’t stay in touch.
I grew up only a few miles from both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles. The nostalgia I feel for those days is painful to say the least.