How To Stay In Touch With Family When You Move Away
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One of the great things about modern technology is how it keeps us connected to the world and those we love. Living in a different city or country to your family and friends no longer means the occasional phone call or letter in between infrequent visits for Christmas or special occasions. With more and more people choosing to travel, work internationally or settle away from their hometown, staying in touch is important.
For this reason, moving away doesn’t mean that you have to feel cut off from the people you love and places you know, overseas movers, in particular, can feel isolated. but you should keep these tips in mind when you’re keeping in touch.
Use a number of methods of communication
There are so many ways to keep in touch now. It might be a bit of a hassle, but having access to a few of these could help keep you in touch with certain people. Sure, you and your friends might use WhatsApp, while your parents may want to use Facebook Messenger.
Make it easy for older relatives
Not to bow to the stereotype that older people can’t use technology, but it can be quite common. If you have relatives who aren’t really tech-savvy, then it can become easy to lose touch with them because they aren’t as easy to contact through your usual channels.
Teach your relatives how to use video calling or messenger apps so that they can keep in touch with you. The Facebook Portal is quite handy for this as it is designed to be used by people who aren’t very technical.
Aside from helping them to keep in touch with you, it can also have a positive effect on their lives by keeping them connected to others too, which can sometimes be an issue for older people.
Be the one that reaches out
We’ve already discussed how easy it is for people to forget to keep in touch. Sometimes it can end up in some kind of a passive-aggressive standoff where one person refuses to get in touch with the other because they haven’t made the first move to contact you. Before you know it, weeks or months have gone by.
Try not to get into a battle of wills and keep talking to them, if they don’t respond, then that’s on them.
Stay consistent
When starting a new life in a new place, it’s very easy to be so focused on it, that you forget to stay up to date with your family. Getting in contact can then seem a little awkward, or could directly affect your relationship depending on the dynamic you have with these people.
Some people are just very sociable, whether in person or digitally, sharing their life and messaging regularly. That’s not true of everyone, so if you’re a little absent-minded or lazy in this respect, find ways to keep yourself communicating regularly. Set reminders, start a family group, whatever works for you to keep you talking.
