The US tends to be a lot more spread out than Europe and the rest of the world. It seems like we’re also more likely to move long distances for jobs and the like.
I’m pretty close to most family, 10 to 40 minute drives for everyone that doesn’t live out of state
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We’re on different coasts.
My parents and 4/5 siblings all live 1000 miles away. It’s cold where they live and I can’t stand the long winters.
Amateurs
I live in Australia
Part of my family is in South America
The other part is in Europe
(I know it’s a US community but it was hard to not flex)
Have you ever managed to get everyone together in one place?
My extended family is in Europe.
My sister is in Tennessee. I’m in Utah. Our parents are in California. We’re all a time zone apart. I’m an 11 hour drive from my parents. Or a 2 ish hour direct flight. 5-6 hour trip with connections and such. They’re an hour from the nearest airport. My sister has a harder time making the trip.
Everyone I work with is much better to family and it’s a little strange.
The lack of PTO is especially rough when my family is abroad.
We all lived in the same state except one uncle until I left (3-4 hour plane ride away) and then went further (15 hours+ across two flights). Mom and stepfather moved south to be warmer on retiring not far from where that uncle had gone. I still live in Japan and everyone else still lives in the state I grew up.
For me, visiting family is now a more time-consuming and expensive adventure, particularly because the one airport anywhere near mom only has a couple of flights a day.
As for the in-laws in Japan, a few hours away from SiL who lives in Tokyo and about an hour away from her parents by billet train.
I moved over 1,000 miles away to escape the hellish politics of my home state. My family all hates the politics there, too, but not enough to up and move.
About 20 minutes away. I wish it was farther sometimes.
About 3h30 by train (2 changes), roughly 350km
In the UK
Edit: lol, just seen the community name. Well here’s an unsolicited outsider perspective
It’s good you clarified the UK. 3h30 on a train in the US gets you to about the next town over 😢
It’s not quite that bad, but I’ve really wanted to take Amtrak cross country, which should in theory be easy to do because of all our open land. And yet, it would take like a week or something ridiculous like that.
If I lived in mainland Europe the journey would probably be a bit quicker for a journey of similar distance, everything seems to go via London in this country and we’ve got some creaking infrastructure. However I’ve heard the trains in the US are particularly under funded, so this might be a tiny violin situation
Too damn close sometimes.
I loved my parents when they still lived, and will love their memory until my last day. But I was glad to live a few hours away by car.
For the last 13 years we lived about 2500 miles apart. You can make the drive in 4 days driving about 10 hours a day.
We recently moved back to our home state though, so it’s about 30 minutes drive to my in laws and 2 hours to my mom’s now
oh please, 2 days, for a measly 10 hour drive? that can’t be further than 700 miles, lol. I make a 15 hour drive (~roughly 980miles) yearly for our family Xmas get together.
granted that IS mostly just all flat land and pastures but still, put on an audiobook or two and you’re there before the second one ends lol
Not far enough
2500 miles.
>1000 miles (that’s 1600 km to “edumacashiated” people) so ~2 days drive (or one REALLY long haul). And other family is 3x as far away. The USA is freaking YUGE!
In order of proximity:
- MIL - she lives a bit over an hour away by car on the opposite side of the metro area that I live in.
- Sibling 1, their spouse, & younger child - live 4.5-5 hours away by car, depending on traffic & pit stops. Different metro area in my same state (state 1).
- Nibling 1 (sibling 1’s elder child) & their spouse - live about 17 hours away by car in a sizable metro area in state 2
- Sibling 2, their spouse, & only child - live about 31 hours away by car in a rural-ish community in state 3.
Nibling 1 & sibling 2 could be reached much more quickly by flying. Direct flights to nibling 1’s city exist, but traveling to sibling 2’s city would require at least 1 layover+connecting flight and either 1 hour or 3 hours driving in a rental car, depending on which nearby airport we flew into.
Deceased kin & how far away they lived at time of death:
- FIL - cohabitated with MIL about an hour away
- dad - 3 hours away by car
- mom - 4.5 hours away by car (after dad died she moved to the same metro area as sibling 1, but half an hour drive from sibling 1, where she continued to live until she also croaked)
9.5 hours, 10 hours, 30 hours, and 32 hours drive to various nuclear familial groups.
