Too close or too far?
The other day, I heard my favorite radio DJs talking about the age-old topic of living near family. They posed this question: Is it a good idea to live in the same general area as family, or is it better to move away? The calls, of course, POURED in, and a particular caller really struck me. She was from this area and was also going to college here, but seemingly couldn't WAIT to graduate so she could move away. She wasn't sure where she wanted to go, but she was sure that she wanted to go.
So I began pondering this thought: Is it better to betoo close or too far from family? Is there a "right" distance?
Right now, I'm about 45-50 minutes from my home town and 2 hours from my in-laws. For me and Sean, this amount is pretty perfect. We can see them easily for a day trip, but are still in our own community with friends, favorite restaurants, etc. When we lived in Rhode Island, 5 1/2 (ish) hours from BOTH sets of parents, we felt extremely disconnected. We were always the last to know about everything, which seems silly since a phone call is such an easy way to connect. But the truth was that because we were "out of sight," we were also, in some ways, "out of mind." Now that we're closer, we feel MUCH more involved with both of our families.
One of my closest friends from high school ideally would like to live within 10-15 minutes of her family. For others, living 5 (or more) hours from family is a comfortable distance. My grandma still talks about Rochester ("the city," as she calls it) as if it's in another state. To her, even 30 minutes is too far our of town. But for us, 30 minutes to an hour away is the perfect distance to feel like we have the best of both worlds.
So I began pondering this thought: Is it better to be
Right now, I'm about 45-50 minutes from my home town and 2 hours from my in-laws. For me and Sean, this amount is pretty perfect. We can see them easily for a day trip, but are still in our own community with friends, favorite restaurants, etc. When we lived in Rhode Island, 5 1/2 (ish) hours from BOTH sets of parents, we felt extremely disconnected. We were always the last to know about everything, which seems silly since a phone call is such an easy way to connect. But the truth was that because we were "out of sight," we were also, in some ways, "out of mind." Now that we're closer, we feel MUCH more involved with both of our families.
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| We met my mom for the day, last week, and walked in a fundraising 5K for Pancreatic Cancer research. |
When we have kids, I know that we'll be thankful that we live as close as we do. I grew up with strong relationships with both of my grandmas. I saw my aunts on a regular basis. Every holiday was a big event that (almost) everyone attended (I have some family members who live on the west coast). Right now, I can start to prepare to give my kids certain gifts, and one of them will be the gift of living near both sets of grandparents and knowing them well. There is nothing, to me, more important than that!
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