The trials and joys of interstate family!
Most of my family (biological and in-laws) live interstate. My husband grew up in Victoria and spent a year in Western Australia before moving to South Australia to study. This is also where he met me (a native South Aussie) and we married. But I always knew S.A. wouldn't keep him happy for long - and we moved to the Northern Territory a few years after we married. We loved the lifestyle there (and one of my sisters also lived nearby) but the weather eventually wore us down and we moved to a new opportunity (close to one of Shayne's brothers) in W.A.
Living a long way away from most of our family (Shayne has five married siblings complete with their families, and a Mum in the eastern states, and I have two married siblings complete with their families, and both parents in SA) wasn't really a problem until our cherubs came along. It was just a good excuse to have a decent holiday every few years...
But now, we realise how hard it is to keep our children in touch with their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, when they only see them every couple of years, and we also miss advice and babysitting close by!
However, on the plus side:
- any visit to family is an adventure, and we almost never outstay our welcome!
- when the grandparents have come to stay, the children get some pretty full on attention.
- we don't have much friction within the family over unsolicited advice, and we get on fantastically with our in-laws.
- we've learnt lots of new technological tools to help keep in touch - Shayne's Mum is one of the most technologically connected 75 year-olds I know! We have a family website where we blog and post photos www.beachmob.org/family (password protected) and there is a fair bit of skyping and some video conferencing that happens. And watching Shayne and his siblings sit around together at a table, with half a dozen laptops between them, chatting almost as much online as in person, is something to be seen :)
So, like most situations, there are positives and negatives about where we live. Just wonder
New baby is due end of April 2009 -Judith Beach 11/14/08 12:19 PM
Well done! -Margaret Solosy 11/14/08 12:25 PM
2 comments:
Oh - big congratulations on the impending arrival Judith. I thought it was a bit impersonal to leave a comment here rather than congratulating you in person, but I don't think we will be in the same place for a while ...
C.O.N.G.R.A.T.U.L.A.T.I.O.N.S
Congratulations Judith. I'm always the last to know these things!
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