NBR: How far do you live from your family?

SnShne322

J and I always talk about moving.  Both of us live within an hour of all our family members, with the exception of my grandmother in France, my sister in Ohio and his sister in Florida.  We've both always been this way, so it's hard for us to imagine not living near them.  We also have a close group of friends that we would be leaving behind if we move.  I expect that we would have limited visitors as neither of our family really travels.  In my heart, I just don't think I can do it.  My ILs are super close with Wes and my parents see him often, too.  That's the hardest for me.  Also, I don't know that we could afford constant travel and it would have to be limited to once or twice a year.  It's not something I need to decide on or anything, but we both love the idea of creating a life somewhere else.  I often wonder if it's the grass is always greener syndrome, but I don't know.

How far do you live from your family? Do you enjoy it or not?

julie37619

I'm a half hour from my parents, fifteen to twenty minutes from my sister, four hours from my little brother, and ten hours from my big brother and his family.  I went to college an hour away from home, which is the further I've ever lived away from my parents and sister on a long-term basis.  I'm a totally homebody and my mom and sister are my best friends.  I can't imagine living any further away, but I do like that half hour drive between us.  It means no unnecessary "just dropping by".

julie37619

Oh and to add - my heart is broken on a regular basis by the distance between me and my niece and nephews.  It would make my life if they moved close enough for me to see them more than once or twice a year.  That said, it IS doable.  We facetime at least once a week, I send care packages every month, and I go visit as often as I can.  I think I still have a really good relationship with them despite the distance.

booneybear

We are a 1/2 hour from my parents.  1 hour from his parents.  

I am approximately an hour from my only sibling (sister and her family).  

my Husband has a sister about 1 hour away.  His other two siblings are in DC and Michigan.

My grandmother is about an hour and 15 minutes away (and so are all my aunts and uncles) 

I have a very small family (only dad's side.  mom was an orphan) and luckily no one in my family likes to move around.

jenndawnp

I live in the same town as my brother, so 10 minutes but we work together so I can see him every day.  I really do love it, he's one of my best friends.

My parents are a 2 hour drive away plus an 1 hour and a half on a ferry, and you're held hostage to the ferry schedule and weather.  I hate being this far away from them.

We are 45 minutes away from my husband's parents and sister. 

WillyH19

My sister and my parents live in the same town about 700 miles away. I didn't mind it until we had J. Now, even though my family has visited a few times, I wish we lived closer. 

We do plan on moving back to my hometown sometime in the next few years, likely before J starts school. 

My husbands mom lives about 2 hours away (far, far too close for my comfort) and his dad lives about 5 hours away. 

packfan20

About 4 blocks from my parents, 5 minutes from Inlaws and 10 minutes from my brother. DH's siblings range from 25 minutes to 12 hours.

I would not move any farther from my family. At, this point, I'm too used to them being right there when I need them.

BIL & SIL did the "pick up and start somewhere new" thing a few years ago. They knew no one and live in the middle of nowhere (compared to how they both grew up). They are homebodies so I guess it works for them. I would think it would be so lonely. They never come back here for holidays so they are always alone. (They don't have kids. The rest of us do so it is easier for them to travel though we have visited them twice.) To each his own.

Lauren620

We live 5 minutes from my parents, all 3 grandparents, both sisters and their families.  We actually live the farthest away, everyone else lives on the same street and one sister lives less than a mile away.  We see them as much or as little as we want and with MH's work travel schedule, there are times when I am so happy to have them close by.  The only ones who will just drop by unannounced are my grandmothers, which I know would be much more frequent if I lived any closer and they didn't have to drive.

BIL/SIL live about 45 minutes away and rarely see them.  MIL/FIL live about 1.5 hours away.  We see them once a month maybe every two months.  The difference in having family that you can pop in and visit for the day or a couple of hours and having family that has to stay with you in your house for several nights is tremendous.  Visits with the latter are so much more stressful (which could be in part because it's my ILs) and not as enjoyable for me or MH.  

I would really miss my family if I didn't live close by.  No comment on living near the ILs

CTDec03Bride

I'm an only child so no siblings, but my Mom lives about 15-20 min away, my Dad lives 15 min away, and my MIL lives with us since my FIL passed away.  My husband isn't close to his siblings so we don't see them often either way.  Some live close, some live in other states.  We see the ones in another state about once a year.

lab7979

My husband and I are from the same home town.  Both of our families still live there.  It's about 45min to an hour away.  My husbands sister lives about 15-20 minutes away from us.  My sister and I work at the same place so we can really see each other whenever we want.  We talk about moving away all the time.  Its not something we would do until our kids are out of the house (another seven years at least.)  I think it would be hard to be far away from family with little kids.  Its just nice to have the help of our family.  I am worried once they are out of the house I won't feel like I can move because my parents will be starting to get older.  

jackiback

My husband and I grew up in the same town. It is about 3.5 hours away from where we live now. His parents, siblings and my siblings all live there. Until September, my parents did too, but they just moved up here! They are only about 30 minutes away now and it is pure bliss. 

I will say that my ILs are best taken in small doses and I know that it would be very stressful to live near them. We travel down about every 6 weeks or so, so it's a good balance. I do miss my siblings/Shaun's siblings and our nieces and nephews all the time. 

jason&robin

about 90 min from my parents, 45 min from ils and about 30 min for brother and sil

sassypants527

I'm about 8 hours away from my immediate family and 12 from the bulk of my mom's side, and we're 2 hours from DH's sister and about 6 1/2 from his other sister. His stepmother lives about 90 minutes away from us. Neither of us really minds because we're both fairly autonomous people thought I do miss being able to see my nieces and nephew more often. We like being away from the drama of who does or doesn't come over often enough, spend more time with one particular family member, etc.

Read2Me

My sister and her family live about 15 minutes from us.  Both sets of our parents are a little over an hour away (but in opposite directions.)  My parents just retired though and are planning to move here.  My brother lives 2 hours away.  One of DH's sisters lives 1 1/2 hours away and the other lives across the country.

kelshaws1311

We are an hour away from my IL's, 5 minutes from my SIL, and about 20 from my BIL. That said we only see each other maybe 1 or 2 times a month. Everyone is just extremely busy and it is hard to really all get together.

My mom and sister are 2 hours north and we travel up there once a month, and my mom comes down once a month. My dad lives in Texas so we see each other one time a year.

My husband and I have a 5 year plan to move to North Carolina (it will be about 8-10 hours from family). It will be hard but we plan to have a guest bedroom for that specific reason of family visiting more often since no lodging/food will need to be paid for. Growing up all of my aunts/uncles/grandparents were hours away . I saw my dads family once a year and they were only 2 hours away. My moms side maybe every 5 years. Is it hard? Yes, but I have a very close relationship with all of my family despite the distance.

RhymeReason

We live about 45 mins in either direction from our parents. We ended up choosing a place directly in the middle. Most of my family lives within an hour from us.

Also, this is NorthernLghts. Apparently when I deleted my bump account, I lost access to it here too.

RevJen

I live about half an hour from my mom, stepfather, niece & nephew.  My brother is an hour from us.  And my father lives in Florida.  My MIL lives on Long Island closer to my BIL/SIL so that about 1.5-2 hours depending on traffic through the city.

We've kicked around moving down towards Gettysburg but we haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Shepherdjel

We all live in the same town about 10-15 to my mom and to the in-laws and siblings. We love it! We see the pretty much how much/little we want. Plus someone is always there if we need them.

dmlk413

My ILs all live in the same town as us.  My dad and most of my extended family live on the west coast while I live in the midwest.  My brothers are about an 8 hour drive west and my mom is a 7 hour drive south.

I don't mind living far away from my parents because they are BSC but everyone else it does bother me.  I don't really have a support system here at all (it's me vs. my ILs).  My grandparents are now at a point where they don't travel so we have to go see them and it's very expensive.  It's just also really hard to travel with a toddler (IMO).

duxcaelo

We are in MD and my family is mostly in IN. My H's family is mostly in FL. We met in college almost a decade ago and have moved to several states based on my H's career path. When we first moved it was an adjustment to not be able to pop by and see my family, but I've gotten used to it. The toughest thing is not being able to see the nieces and nephews as they grow and to miss big events. 

My parents don't ever want to talk on the phone, so we text occasionally, but my sister and I try to talk or Skype once or twice a month. I don't really interact a lot with my brothers, but I do try to send things for their kids. 

The toughest part is that almost all of our vacation time is used to visit family and they hardly ever come to visit us (most of our visitors have been awesome friends we've made along the way). We want kids at some point and so we know that will be more difficult without the family backup, but there isn't much work in our fields where our families live. 

jjr1214

About eight months ago we moved to Texas from Iowa and now our closest family is 10 hours away. My dad and younger sister are 15 hrs away, and H's family is 12 hours away. We have not adjusted well at all and are actively looking to move back to my hometown. My family drives me crazy sometimes but it's hard being so far away. Growing up my extended family was always scattered all over the country so I never had a close knit family, but my husband did and seeing how great that was for him has made it something I want for my daughter and any future kids. 

caseyandlizzie

My IL's are about 10 minutes from us, as is my brother. My dad is about 30 minutes away, my mom lives with my grandma and they are about 2 hours away. My sister moved to NC in September, which is 7 hours from here. I miss her like crazy.
When my mom was local, she had the awful habit of just showing up at our house. If we weren't home, she would just sit in her car or on our porch and wait for us. It was beyond obnoxious, and I'm really glad she can't do that anymore.

EliStar

Nearly all of my family lives in Miami. Parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. I have some family scattered around but we still see everyone really often. DH's parents and brother live here but the rest of his family is in Texas, Ohio and Kansas and we only ever see them when they come down here. 

84Lauren

My parents and sister and her fam live over 1,000 miles away (in two different directions) and most of my extended family is even further. It's the worst thing in my life. I have a complete mental/emotional block I've put up or I would be seriously depressed about it, but we talk almost every day and we do visit each other as much as we can.

CeeCeeSugaPie

We have lived all over. DH & I are also from the same hometown and both of our families still live here. We are about 20 minutes away from them both. We lived in SC (about 10 hours from home) for a while and I loved it, before DS. After DS was born, we moved back home. It has been nice for him to be close to cousins and grandparents. He would have only seen them once or twice a year if not. I love being close to my ILs, but being close to my mother is not so fun. I'm an only child though, so she has just me to drive up a wall.

j*&p*

My in-laws live across town and we see them twice or three times a week. They've been in Germany for a few months now visiting other family and it's been really hard not being around them when they're usually such a huge part of our lives. 

My mom and step-dad are about 3 1/2 hours away and I wish so much that they lived closer. We see them every few months though.

My dad and sister both live in town too, but we see my mom and step-dad more often than either of them. I also have a brother on the east coast and a sister in California, and my BIL, SIL and nephews are usually in California, but in Germany for a few years. 

Jliongrrrl

DH and I grew up about 10 miles from each other. Our parents are about 150 miles (2.5-3 hours) away. My mom has MS and it's hard not to be closer as she needs more help. We love the town we live in, and there aren't many employment opportunities where we grew up but we still frequently talk about moving back. I do have a brother who is within 45 minutes of me and we see him a few times a month.

ysolde

Far.  My family is about a 4 and a 1/2 hour flight away.  His family is about an 8 and 1/2 hour flight away.  We rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles.

GilliC

Around 4000 miles. Depending on the flight connections, I can make the trip in as little as 18 hours door to door.

Jen748

We live 5 minutes from my parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle. We live 13 minutes from my FIL and SMIL. We love it. We'd love to live in another place, but being so close to family is more important for us.

kpow

1500 miles from my parents 

550 miles from ILs

Since having a kid, I wish it were much closer.