How often do you see family

Younger daughter and darling grandson coming for lunch today. Mr R and I going to visit our son and darling granddaughter tomorrow afternoon (he does a 4 day week so can care for his daughter - mum at work.) Eldest daughter usually comes to dinner on Saturdays. I know I am very fortune - especially as 2 of my children lived far away for a few years and I missed them very much.

DD lives with her partner about 3 hrs drive from us. She comes home, with or without her partner, about every 6 weeks. I don't flatter myself that we are the main attraction - she has been unable to have children so dotes on her 2 nephews, our 2 dear GSs, who live about 2 miles from us. We see them quite a bit during school holidays, especially if DS is abroad working, when we have the boys for full days while DDIL is at work. In term time, it's once a week school pick up & often at the weekend. If DS is home, we don't see any of them very often, they tend to be very self contained.

All three of my children live about 20 minutes away. I see my eldest girl and her family about four times a week, my younger daughter, who is single, about twice a week and my son, who lives with his GF, about once a fortnight. I consider myself blessed as I lived a five hour drive from my family when I was younger and had moved away and visits were limited to what I could manage as none were keen on making the trip to me! I had not seen my sister for three years until this July when I attended my niece’s wedding (Covid et al!) but I hope to see her again soon- me making the journey of course!

Two DC are nearby but everyone works full time and the GC are teenagers so we meet when we can. We saw them a lot as small children and the bond is there which is lovely.
Our eldest DD is hundreds of miles away and also working full time, we just do the best we can. I know if we asked for help they would be here and at this time of their lives this has to be enough.

One daughter lives 5 hours or more on very busy roads in one direction and the other daughter lives the same time away in the opposite direction. Since I developed my very arthritic hip we do not get together very often, but speak by phone or Zoom every one or two weeks. We have just been all together for my birthday and then I went back to stay for a week at my younger daughter's home up north. I wish we all lived in the same town but that's not how things have turned out. I have to say that having just catered for us all being together for a few days I found it extremely tiring and felt that I had not been in training for it! I actually fell asleep in the chair one night and woke up at 6am in the same place.

Three and a half hours away, I try to go every month but the cost of travel (either petrol for the car or train/tube/bus) means this may not be possible for much longer

We seldom see them

One of my sons lives 5 hours away and Zooms every week with my 2 grandchildren. He always comes up for a couple of days in the holidays. I also have their WHATSAPP nos and periodically contact them.

Come back lilacrose please.

We've moved to be near our youngest daughter who is single and has adopted two children. Obviously we see a lot of them.
We see less of our other grandchildren but they live 45 minutes away and are older so less available. One son also lives very close but he's not very sociable so we don't see much of him.
I think that you have to settle for seeing children as much as they want to be seen.

Two of our AC and their families live 5 hours away and the journey involves a ferry crossing. Work and school commitments mean that we usually see them just 2 or 3 times a year. But they come and stay for a few days or a week, rather than just popping in as they might if they lived nearer. Our other son lives just 7 miles away but we still only see them every couple of months. We and they are not great visitors, though we all get along quite happily.

The infrequency of visits has not really made any difference to the closeness of our relationships with each other.

My son and family live in Australia so I haven’t seen them since just before lockdown. Normally it would have been about once a year. My daughter lives about twenty minutes away and my grandchildren there are teenagers so pretty busy with their lives. I possibly see them once a week or so.

This is an interesting topic, but how many people have no family at all in the UK?

My husband died earlier this year and I'm trying to work out how to cope with the loneliness and all the bank holiday weekends throughout the year.

My situation is hindered by chronic illness and strongly advised to avoid catching covid.

#1DS? Not seen properly for many months and he lives 15 minutes away and works 5away with his father! #2son and 3gk? Lives 4miles away and not seen for nigh on 5 years. Both have weird partners!! I'm forthright and open and a strong personality I think Insecure females find me a threat so create reasons to alienate me. Very sad and unnecessary as I only have ever been friendly and very generous. A fool? Probably.

Ditto whitewavemark2.

There are lots of courses and manuals to help new parents. Something is needed for new grandparents.

The first thing it should contain is a statement saying that being a grandparent is only part of your life. You need, as you approach retirement to build an entirely independent life for yourself: friends, interest, occupations, so that your grandchildren are not the be all and end all of your life.

As a result any rupture in relationships or anything else that means being a grandparent is not what you hoped, you have other friends and interests who enable you to see it is a sadness but not the end of the world.