How often do you see family

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.

Ditto whitewavemark2.

#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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Come back lilacrose please.

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.

We seldom see them

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

I have DS living with me with his 9 year old son. DD lives 10 minutes away with her family so I see them often and we What's App all the time.

I’m like crazyH I don’t want to be seen as an overbearing mam, so I know they have their own lives and we meet up when we can.

Mom3

We live close enough to our daughter that she can ride her bicycle here but she usually drives the 10 minutes. Sometimes we see her once a week and other times two weeks will go by. We used to babysit a lot but the two GDs are older now but we are close to them. Both sons are about an hour and a half away depending on how traffic flows. Older son has two little boys that we really missed during Covid. His wife was great about sending pictures with texts. Younger son has young daughters that seem to love me alot and we have fun together even though I don't see them as often as the nearby GDs. They asked me to come spend the night this Friday to see a new pet. They will all leave the next morning for a weekend trip with DIL's family. Last month I housesat for a week while they were on vacation. I enjoyed it and was able to spend a day with a friend. Then I learned later that they were on that vacation with DIL's family. Sort of made me feel like just a servant. I know son loves me and our family, but this is something I have struggled with. I don't want our son to know how I feel so I try my best to be upbeat.

I seem to see a lot of pictures on Facebook of friends having holidays and meeting up with family. But I seem to be housesitting gran in my family. I sometimes think it’s because me and their dad aren’t together ( he left). If we were still together I feel that we would spend more family time together but try not to think about it. Must have been a shock to find that they were on holiday with your DIL’s family.

We live close enough to our daughter that she can ride her bicycle here but she usually drives the 10 minutes. Sometimes we see her once a week and other times two weeks will go by. We used to babysit a lot but the two GDs are older now but we are close to them. Both sons are about an hour and a half away depending on how traffic flows. Older son has two little boys that we really missed during Covid. His wife was great about sending pictures with texts. Younger son has young daughters that seem to love me alot and we have fun together even though I don't see them as often as the nearby GDs. They asked me to come spend the night this Friday to see a new pet. They will all leave the next morning for a weekend trip with DIL's family. Last month I housesat for a week while they were on vacation. I enjoyed it and was able to spend a day with a friend. Then I learned later that they were on that vacation with DIL's family. Sort of made me feel like just a servant. I know son loves me and our family, but this is something I have struggled with. I don't want our son to know how I feel so I try my best to be upbeat.

Where is lilacrose?

We see the three youngest AC and their children several times a week. Childcare for those not in nursery/school year round. Two live within a 5 minute walk (DD same road) and her brother and family live 5 minutes further on. One loves by the beach and depending on time of year/weather it can take anything from 25 minutes up to 1 1/2 hours (flipping day trippers ?) Eldest travels the world with their job, at the moment they are only an hour away round M25 so we see them once a month usually they stay here or we stay with them. The fifth lives 15 minute walk away in other direction, tread on eggshells with their partner so it all depends on them.

From September they will all be in nursery and or school so will only be on Granny duty during school holidays or if they are poorly

My two sons live not far away, so I see them usually about once a week.

Our daughter is 45 minutes way and we usually see her 2-3 times a week .She is chronically ill so some weeks its more ,our son is 5 mintes walk away .he pops in most days when passing and we have his family weekly for dinner .I'm back to having the GD's( not th 2yr old) for weekends ,the girls are great fun and they love being here .
I cant imagine not seeing them a lot .its how we were with our parents.

Germanshepherdsmum

Reported.

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