Simpson
Family members may be close to your heart, but it can be difficult to keep up a connection when they live far away. Although this might be sad, there are definitely ways you can keep your closeness with your family to avoid feeling distant from them throughout the time you are apart. Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege of living close to their family members, but this does not have to affect the quality of your relationships. As long as an effort is put in from both sides, there are a variety of things you can do to stay close with your family. Here are just a few of them!
Ensure To Schedule Regular Calls
Having regular calls with your family is a great way to have regular catch-ups and remain up to date on what is going on in each other’s lives. This could be over the phone, or over Facetime for a more personal call. If you have multiple family members who want to be part of the call, you could schedule a group Zoom call, which is a platform that is great for calls with multiple people. Try and set a target for the number of calls you have and ensure you stick to it, so that you aren’t becoming distant over time – once a month could be a great baseline if you are organizing a large group call, but if you are looking for something smaller or one-on-one, you could make this once a fortnight.
Group calls can be low-pressure and fun. If you want to add an element of humor or distraction into your calls, why not ask a different family member to make a fun quiz for each time you have a call? This can be a fun way to bond, and you can personalize your questions to suit your family. After having multiple different lockdowns over the previous few years, a lot of us are used to being creative with our group calls, so make the most of all that practice you have had! Here are some good ideas on making group calls entertaining.
Try And Have Family Meets During the Year
Although it might be hard to meet up regularly, you should try and put a time aside where you and your family meet up during the year to keep you all in touch. Depending on the size of your family and the number of family members you have, this may have to be an annual meetup, but if you can facilitate it, try and make it more often than this! Christmas, Easter, and summer are often ideal times to have family catch-ups, as this distributes your meetups throughout the year, and also coincides with school holidays if you have children. If you do all live far apart, consider meeting up in an in-between point for the day or for a weekend, or if any of you are able to host, then this can provide a comforting and homely feeling.
Have Some Sentimental Items As A Reminder Of Family Members
For the times you aren’t together, having reminders of your family members is the best way to feel close to them at heart. Sentimental items can be the best way to do this. Some ideas can be ornaments that have been bought for you by family, souvenirs from a special family weekend, or even a photograph or photo album of all the family together. Having a photo print is a great way to remind yourself of the good times you have together – it is easy to get multiple photos printed so that you have one for all different households. A picture print can feel more personal than just looking at a photograph on your phone, so next time you are wanting to print photos then have a look at the deals offered on Photobox. Photobox has lots of personalized gift ideas using photos, from mugs to wall art, and more.
Something you must remember to do when you have family meetups, no matter how rare they may be, is to take updated photographs of the family altogether. Particularly if you have children or teenagers in the family, they can change so quickly so it is great to be able to capture them at different moments in life.
Update Each other About Key Events
One reason why physical distance from your family members can alter your sense of closeness with them is that you may miss out on key events and updates in one another’s lives if you aren’t seeing each other all of the time. This is why it is important to send messages to update each other if something happens – this could be done casually through a family group chat. You may feel as though your updates are small or insignificant, but it really can mean a lot to your family to receive updates from the family and will make them feel as though they are included in your life. This is particularly true for younger family members: your life tends to change a lot as a young person, so keeping everyone up to date on what you have been up to, how school or college is going, or any holidays you have planned will help you feel connected to each other.
This will also mean your time apart will go by much quicker and won’t feel like such a void – when you actually manage to meet up in real life, there won’t be so much to catch up on as you’ll be constantly filled in!
Family is super important, as your family often ends up being some of your closest friends and the most vital support system throughout your life. Even though keeping close through a long distance can be quite time-consuming and may feel like a hassle, it is completely worth it for the relationships that you form and upkeep. Whether blood-related or not, family is one of the most important things in life, so it is vital that you don’t let distance get in the way of that.
