Friday Question #20
What is your relationship like with your family? Do you live in the same town? How often do you see them/communicate with them?
Hi, my name is Kim and I am being nosy. But I’m curious, so what the hell.
I’ve always gotten along with my family – except for maybe two years in high school. Of course, those were my depressed/rebellious years, so it’s my own fault. I can’t imagine what it was like to be my parents then.
My family lives in Iowa. I think if I averaged out all the times I see them a year, it would be 6-8 times a year. But I talk to my mom at least a few times a week, and send a few emails back and forth to other people. I miss my sister a lot.
Steven’s family lives in Kansas City and we really only see them 3 or 4 times a year. We talk to them maybe once a month. Good thing my brother-in-law started a blog or I would have no idea what the hell was going on in his life.
So, I am wondering… is it common to be this disconnected from your family? It doesn’t bother me too much, but I am wondering what other people’s routines are.
Themocracy
Ooooh, this is a good question (and I hope you don’t mind if I do my own version of it next week – I promise I’ll give you credit). My family – well, other than an aunt and uncle living in Chicago, everyone lives on the east coast. I see my parents and younger brother probably 3-4 times a year, at most. We talk weekly. And we’re all on email. It’s funny, but I don’t feel disconnected from them at all. Maybe that’s because my mom can (and will!) spend 45 minutes detailing an evening out or changes they’re making to their house. I think it’s all how a family communicates and not whether we see each other face to face that matters most.
I get along really, really, really well with my family. I don’t see my extended family nearly as much as I used to, now it’s just mainly holidays, but I see my parents and brother probably once a month, sometimes more or less. My parents live about 50 minutes away, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them more often but they travel so much it’s hard to get together.
My in laws live in Nebraska, about 4-5 hours away, yet some how we manage to see them a lot more often than I see my own parents. His mom runs her own business, and that brings her down to Denver fairly often, and it’s not unusual to see them at least once a month, although lately it’s been a lot more often.
I talk to my parents pretty regularly, like you. But I usually only see the extended family at the holidays, and only hear from them near the holidays or when something is wrong (i.e., someone is in the hospital). Even then, I usually get the news from my mom.
It’s a little weird, because most of my family is clustered in Ohio. But, it is what it is, and I love them all. 🙂
My parents live about five blocks away. I used to see them at least a couple of times a week. Now, it seems we go a few weeks without seeing them face-to-face. It’s weird, and I don’t like it, but our lives are different right now.
My wife’s family all live one or two towns away most of the year (Her dad winters in Florida). We see them all separately every now and then but we always get together as a group for every holiday. The girls talk a lot about getting together to shop, stay at a hotel, and probably get drunk, but they’ve only done it once. The guys talk about getting a softball team together every couple years (for 20 years) but we’ve never done it. That being said, we only see each other about 8-10 times a year.
The main reason my wife and I have both turned down jobs in other parts of the country is because of our families. Once our son graduates high school, we might consider moving. But who knows. By then, I doubt we’d be able to leave our grandson.
Awh, I miss my sister a lot too! 🙁
I am pretty close to my immediate family. We live 2.5/3.5 hours away from each other (1 sister in MI, rest in OH). I did move away for a year to MA when I was 21 but moved back to see them more. I see them a 1-2 times a month just depending on what’s going on.
As for extended family, I consider myself close with them, but they all live 7-15 hours away and i see them maybe 1-2 times a year. We mostly stay in touch via email.
My parents are both deceased, as is my brother. So now it’s just my two sisters and me, and our families. I have nothing whatever in common with my oldest sister, and hardly ever talk to her. I share some common interests with my middle sister, but we are so different in personality that it’s rare for us to spend time together. We usually have fun when we go to Vegas together, though.
Besides my daughter, the relative I’m closest to is my niece. She’s only 12 years younger than me, and more like me than any of my siblings. Our husbands are buddies, too. We love spending time with them! Luckily, they live just down the street from us.
We live in IL. My mom lives 10 minutes away, I adore her and if I go too long without seeing her, I get “blue”. She’s the best! My dad passed away in Dec ’04 🙁 I have 6 sisters and 5 brothers – all live close except 2 sisters on the east coast. I love them all dearly and we run into each other at our mom’s house. I have a few sister’s that are actually “off their rocker’s” but hey, 2 nut jobs out of 12 isn’t such a bad ratio if your think about it. Christmas and the 4th of July are our big get-togethers. I am #11, 2nd to the youngest.
The husband’s mom lives in WI and is harmless – she rarely comes around and is not high maintenance. He has one brother and he’s very cool.
I’m extremely lucky to have a plethora of nieces and nephews that I think are great and I am close to every last one of them.
And, I’d say that over the years we have become somewhat disconnected due to everyone being so darn busy…. but I know they have my back and visa versa 🙂
Well, my parents and Katie’s parents only live about an hour from us in opposite directions. But we don’t see them all that often. Every few weeks. But, of course, there are the holidays which wind up being the exception to the rule. My mom winds up calling me once a week and gets offended that I don’t call here all the damn time. It gets a bit old. But I hate phones. That’s just how it is. If I didn’t need to have a cellphone, I wouldn’t. And I’d be in hog heaven.
Okay, back on topic. I do have a good relationship with my parents save for their neediness (well mostly my mom, actually). I’m sure I’ll get to a point where I want to talk to her all the time and do take the time to contact her regularly, but I’m not there yet. I’m actually a pretty solitary person, believe it or not.
My parents are deceased and so are my grandparents. I only have my two children, my grandson and one brother, Brian (three years younger than me), his wife and their three kids in my immediate family. My daughter lives 30 minutes away, my brother and his family are two hours away and my son lives with me still. We all communicate on a daily basis and have a pretty close relationship.
*Also posted on my blog along with #21 and #22. I hope to answer the rest of the questions soon!”