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The distant grandparent dilemma

meeekuslawmeeekuslaw
in Minnesota Babies
I don't know about any of you, but I lived very close to both sets of my grandparents growing up (like, within 10 minutes of each).  Now that my husband and I live in the cities, we have 1 set of (soon to be) grandparents a little over 2 hours away, and the other about 4 hours away.  We don't have any other close family around here, either.  It's really starting to bother me as the birth of our first baby nears-- she will not have the great experience both my husband and I did growing up.  In fact, she won't be close to really any of her family members- aunts, uncles, cousins included.  Anyone else in a similar situation?  How do you cope?
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Re: The distant grandparent dilemma

  • Fuzzy8252Fuzzy8252 member
    You manage. Our closest family is down in Sioux Falls and we only see them a few times a year. My parents are in Wyoming and the rest of our family is still out in CA. Plus, you'll be surprised at how much grandparents will be willing to come and visit. I miss my family, but there are so many ways to keep in touch now.
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  • ariel06ariel06 member

    My parents live 5 minutes away, but my ILs are 2 hours away.   We normally see them every month or so (it be more often if they ever came to see us).  Two hours isn't too bad of a distance because we meet halfway sometimes and will do lunch or dinner. 

    How computer savy are they?  You can use skype to communicate with them on a regular basis. 

    Yes, the relationship my sons have with my parents is different because they see them a couple times a week, but they are still close to our other family members who are farther away. 

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  • annieh2annieh2

    We live 3 hrs from my family and 5hrs from H's family, so not real close either.  We do meet up for the day with my family at various spots about halfway between our locations.  Totally doable for a day trip. We typically meet up, go visit for the weekend or they'll come see us at least once a month if not more often. 

    We don't see H's family very much, but when we do see them it is for longer periods of time (4 days or more).  It's frustrating at times because they aren't always willing to drive up for things (they missed Will's baptism), but we take what we can get and do our best to be grateful for the times they do come. 

     We skype with both sides of our family and chat on the phone often.  It's not that bad.  I do wish we were closer, but we are just glad most of our family is an easy car ride away.  We have some family living abroad and it is much harder for them to be so far from all family.  They see family once a year if they are lucky. 

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  • mrsadamswifemrsadamswife

    We are lucky that 3 out of 4 are close. But FIL is in Texas and doesn't get to visit all that often. We skype every other week or so, and we show the pictures to LO so she knows them.

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  • HannaBHannaB

    I grew up in Texas and all my grandparents lived in Ohio. I was very very close with my maternal grandmother, probably the closest to her out of 17 grandchildren, many of whom were local to her. Distance doesn't mean there can't be a relationship.

    My husband's family is local; my MIL watches LO 1x a week and we see FIL & sMIL a few times a month.

    My family will only see him a few times a year. My mom calls me and criiiiiies looking at his pictures or reading my blog. It makes me sad that she can't see him all the time, but he is going to know how loved he is and it will be SO fun and special when we go to visit them, just like it was for me as a kid when we'd go see my grandparents in the summer.

    AND my grandmothers would come to Texas 1x a year and it was so great to have them all to ourselves, without having to share them with our cousins.

    2 and 4 hours is nothing. You'll make it work! 

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