Excuse me for dragging this thread out of the cupboard, but I would like you all to know that I have taken some consolation from it. We are expecting our first grandchild at the end of July and 6 months later, in January 2015, my son, with his wife and baby, will up sticks and move to California, where he has a good job waiting for him.
I did this myself, like some of you on this thread have already described, and deprived my parents of their grandchildren, and in those days all we had were letters and photos on paper to send to each other. I live in Germany, so there wasn't so much of a problem with time difference, and telephone calls were expensive, but technically no problem. If I wanted to visit my parents with my babies, I had to go to a travel agent and book a flight. Occasionally we would drive over and visit them in the car.
My father was happy to drive and visit us once a year, and when the driving got too much for them, they flew once or twice. My mother flew over on her own, twice after I had had serious operations, and for the last time a few years ago when my oldest got married.
As parents, you don't realise what a wrench it must be for the grandparents, and now the tables are turning on me, I am torn between the exciting prospect of my first visit to the US and the sadness at having to watch my grandson go through those so very important early years at long distance.
They do plan to return to Europe when the little one starts school, though - so there is a distant light at the end of the tunnel.
Right. This is my first post on gransnet - I'm off to explore the site.