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In today’s world, many times we live far from some of our family. My husband and I are about 2.5 hours from our closest family members. Little J’s grandparents all live about three hours away, and we have some siblings and cousins that are 6+ hours away. It can be hard to stay in touch!
Thankfully with social media, it is much easier than it was years ago!
Imagine this – my grandma immigrated her from France in the 1960s. She packed up and left thinking she might never see her parents or siblings again. Now, thanks to technology, she is able to chat with her mother each day via video. The method they’ve used over the years has changed slightly, but they talk each day!
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So how do we keep everyone up-to-date on our family’s happenings? Mostly I send out e-mails to a select group of people. I try to do this at least 3-4 days a week, but I’ve been a slacker lately.
Of course I also use Facebook and Instagram to keep everyone in the loop. However, lately I’ve been looking for even more ways to keep our family up to speed on everything going on in our lives. So here’s a few ideas I want to pass on to you so you can make communicating with far away family a part of your every day life.
I try to post to Facebook about once every two weeks. Since I have a public profile, I tend to keep a lot of my posts of mister J for friends only. However, sometimes he’s so cute that I share it for everyone to see! {An occasional photo of baby boy also ends up on my Life Adventures page as well!}
Not many family members follow me on Instagram. But those who do get to see random pics (and sometimes video) of the little man and our life in general. I tend to post all over the place on Instagram – teaching stuff, mommy stuff, and life stuff. It’s quite possibly my favorite social media!
I’ll be honest – I don’t use Twitter personally. With that being said, I know some people use it religiously for communicating with family. If you’re one of them, I’d love for you to shout out what you do in the comments! {Maybe I can learn something new!}
E-mails
Like I said earlier, this is the method I use most frequently. I try to send a quick e-mail a couple times a week. When mister J was first born, I did this more often. Now we are getting into a routine, and I’ve – unfortunately – forgotten this as part of it! I need to get better
My favorite part about these e-mails? I often write them from baby J’s point-of-view. He “tattles” on all the things his first time parents are messing up. 😉
YouTube
While I’ve got a couple videos posted about teaching, I haven’t pursued this avenue from a personal aspect. However, this would be a great way to showcase various milestones and cute sayings our babes say! Just keep in mind that what you share might be seen by more than just family.
Art Work
This is something I plan to do more as our little boy grows. Depending on the artwork, we might scan it to e-mail to people or we might snail mail items. It’ll be a great creative outlet for him, and I know our family will love seeing what he’s up to!
Video Chat
Regardless of the method you choose – Skype, FaceTime, or any of the various messengers – it can be nice for your child to see and hear the person they are speaking to.
I know Mr. J already knows some family member’s voices more than others because I talk to them on the phone so often. If we would use video chat more, he would also recognize them! I’m worried he’s going to go through the “stranger” phase and not want to be around people other than me and daddy. Hopefully we can combat this (if it happens) by video chatting more. We’ll see how it goes…
Use a Blog
I’ve set up a blog for the classroom before, so why not set one up for family? One friend of mine did this because she lived here in SD, but many of her family and friends lived down South. The best part about this blog? After her child’s first birthday she actually turned the blog into a book! It was a great keepsake of her little one’s first year!
The other plus to a blog? You publish the post and you’re done! Your family needs to check it out whenever a new post goes up. (And you can teach them to subscribe so new posts go direct to their inbox. Done!)
Mail Letters/Artwork/Photos/Small Gifts
Mail Letters/Artwork/Photos/Small GiftsThis is one my mom (J’s Nana) does regularly already. She sends up various care packages to let us know she’s thinking about us. Typically it’s just a quick little thing, but it makes our day to get real mail!
I’ve been trying to be better about sending pictures of little J to people. I almost always send people the digital photo, but I find that in today’s world – it’s sometimes nice to get a simple photo in the mail. I know pictures always bring a smile to my face! That’s why I’ve started using Groovebook. It’s a great way to get inexpensive pictures each month to send to family and friends. If you use code Whetham-Fergen31, you can get your first Groovebook for FREE! 🙂 (As of 7/21/2017 a Groovebook costs me just $3.18 each month – tax and everything included.)
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Regardless of the method you use to keep in touch with everyone regularly, also try to get together on a regular basis! It’s important for your child to know the people mom and dad find important. We have so many trips for our little man planned for the next 18 years!
What communication method/s would you add to this list? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
~HoJo~
I definitely understand this! My family is 7 hours away, my husbands is 2 hours away, I have extended family in Texas, St. Louis, Chicago, and Florida and my sister lives in New York City! We're all over the place! We do a weekly round up of pictures sent to each other via e-mail. And video chatting all. the. time. Thanks for sharing!
Our kids' great grandmother just starting texting this year which was huge! She always wanted everyone to call or visit frequently which just isn't always practical for growing families. If she gets on social media I may have a heart attack lol! I do love that you point out the importance of getting together. My husband's family is very large and has a ton of gatherings. My family consists of pretty much just my parents and brother and getting together doesn't happen like I wish it would.
My family emigrated from Canada when I was a child- and I saw my grandparents only 4 or 5 times before they died. We are SO blessed to have the internet to keep in touch! I love that not only can I speak with and see my son (serving in Europe with the Air Force), but that when I send a package, it gets there in just a few days- a far cry from the weeks it took a letter to get 2000 miles 50 years ago. With all the technology, though, I think that your mom is on the best track- having something to hold from your loved one lasts so much longer than a phone call. I appreciate these great reminders! I think I shall send a package to all my far-away loved ones… 🙂
Great list! ie videos: I recently started doing vlogs, and also digitsing my families home video collection. Having those milestones caught on film for forever is so so so precious. I'd probably set those milestones to private on youtube (if it was my kid– I'm paranoid about weirdos), but it is so worth it.
I often talk about this when teaching my blogging classes, I tell them that social media and blogging is the new "white picket fence" especially since families are scattered far away. Periscope seems like a great way to keep everyone close and personal for those once in a lifetime events.
GREAT ideas!! My family is long distant from us and we use quite a few of these ideas. My husband just mentioned yesterday that I should go through my blog and pull out the most precious posts I wrote and print them out into a keep sake book. I might just do that! Thanks for the ideas!
Oh I've just moved to London and my family is London. I stay connected mostly via WhatsApp groups and have created mini FB groups. Love this post!
My family loves keeping in touch via Facebook and text messages! We can't always be with each other and are grateful that technology helps us to not miss out on important moments despite the distance between us all.
Awesome ideas! I am in a whole different country and timezone with my family and I always use social media to get in touch. I mostly use whatsapp and viber and they work pretty well. For some reason none uses email any more. I used to use email back in the days before Facebook, but now, its like it has become the new Myspace (outdated) haha.
I'm afraid keeping in touch with distant relatives is something I'm bad at even with technology. You given me some good ideas like email, something i forget about using for family
What fun ideas! I love the thought of mailing artwork! I always take pictures of my boys art then have a photo book published through snapfish or shutterfly. I need to mail these pictures off to family after I've taken pictures!
I have so many people far away from me. I love all these ideas you have suggested. Although, nothing is as awesome as a face to face visit! I'm happy for the tech stuff though.
Super list and I think youve covered it all!
Having come from India myself, and having so many friends and extended family there, and now that mobile is so big, we use Whatsapp – which is a texting app, and its like they were right next door. Technology has truly shrunk our worlds and gotten us closer. Sometimes too close 😉
I'm jealous that you live so close to your family 🙂 We live 1,000 miles away from any family, so we only see them twice a year. Skype has been great, as have phone conversations, and Facebook. Two of my great-aunts are actually on Facebook now, which is super fun!
Most of my family is close by, however we do have some out of state and we do keep up with them via facebook.. never thought of Skype now this is such a great idea…going to have to look more into this!
We are in the same situation. I have a piece of artwork on the counter that I'm supposed to be mailing (but I've been a slacker). We use Google Hangouts for family time so that several family members can get in at once. These are great tips for keeping in touch with long distance family and friends!
Yes, I live right smack in the middle of the country (Colorado) and my family lives on both coasts. I find that I'm the one that travels to see them, otherwise I would never see them! It's so easy to stay in touch though with all of the social media options. I do reflect back on my parents and grandparents, migrating here from Europe and how long it took to receive mail or have any communication! That would of been so difficult!
Love the internet. Agreed, it's really changed how people communicate, one of the many reasons why the post office is failing (no one sends snail mail anymore).
I started my first personal blog (not the one I'm writing now) to keep my family informed about what was going on. But now everyone uses Facebook.
I use Skype when I travel – free international calls via Wi-Fi, you can't beat that. 🙂
My husband and I are a long way from family. We live in Los Angeles and our families are in the Midwest. Social media definitely helps with staying in touch.
This post is great. I totally understand how you feel. We live a 12 hour plane ride from our family in Virginia. It's the pits. Luckily, we installed a VOIP phone so that I can talk to my family every day. It sounds like we're just down the street. Video chatting is great too. My mom and grandma can see their little grand/great-grand baby whenever they wan (as long as we're not asleep). Keep connected anyway you can!
Great post. Thank you. I moved to NY by myself and my family was in a different country. We used letters and i still do with one of my friends. But now mostly it's Skype and emails. Great list.
I live in Spain, and my family all live in Canada, so this is a topic I have a lot of experience with. I'm so thankful for all the technological advances we have that enables me to stay connected to my loved ones, despite being thousands of kilometres away. Great tips for anyone that finds themselves far from family.
My brother is completely deaf. We actually taught my mother to text so she could communicate with him. We we unsuccessful in teaching her how to use FB to talk to him and see what he was up to but we did try.
I love seeing the pics my daughter posts of my grandchildren who live about 40 minutes away from us.
It IS remarkable how connected we can be, though far apart. With all of the different mediums you described, we have the capacity to grow those special relationships, minus the hugs and kisses (which really are the best part!) I send my grandma a photo book, chronicling our family's year in pictures every Christmas.
We are constantly sharing photos of our twins on Facebook and sometimes on Instagram. I'm still pretty new to it but my followers have been growing pretty rapidly.
We text a lot. My mom lives 2,500 miles away from me, and really our primary form of communication is via text. Before she figured out texting, though, she stalked me online with my blog, which was just fine with me. For the rest of our family and friends (who are like family) we keep up through facebook and email. Those are the easiest for us.
I agree that social media can be a great way to keep in touch with family or friends that live far away. I know there can be drawbacks to social media if you use it too much, but used well, it's a good tool.
I could relate myself with this. Since my hubby is working abroad. We usually use WhatsApp & imo for getting connected ….
These are wonderful ideas for keeping connected. When we lived far away, the internet wasn't here yet. It would have been so awesome to have the ability to connect through skype or facebook.
So true! We have lived away from family for 12 years now. It's hard. It is so important to keep the lines of communication open.
This are some great tips! I'll be trying a few of them out!
Very true. My family is 2.5 hours away. My parents aren't too tech though. At least my dad does FaceBook! We live in a marvelous time to have so many avenues of communication. I imagine what it would have been like in the days that you moved away and that was that except maybe a letter.
While we live over an hr away from my closest family members, it's not as much of a concern for me since the passing of my grandparents. My family hasn't really been much on family for years.
My family lives 16 hours from us. Thanks to technology, my children have a close relationship with my parents! My parents read bedtime stories to my 4 year old on the ipad! We facetime several times a week. I talk to my parents nearly everyday, either through the phone, text or email. I would be lost without that connection my family still has with them, despite the distance!
Great ideas! A great portion of my family members live a pretty fair distance away…I've never considered using my blog to keep them in the know. Will have to feel this out further…
We live near my husbands family, but 1000 miles from mine. We have cycled through all these methods over the years and have settled almost solely on FB now. We have groups for the whole family, and groups for just the siblings and we chat almost every single day in some capacity. It really is amazing how much smaller the world is with social media
I can totally relate! My mom, dad and brother are in the Philippines. We communicate thru Skype practically everyday. Technology has really been a useful tool to bridge communication to relationships separated by distance. Plus my mom has learned to use Facebook and was able to see my current uploads especially of my daughter's activities. Even if they are far, they won't feel that way.
Wow! These are such great tips! My dad's side of the family lives all over the place and we mostly talk through email and Skype! But my family also follows my blog which is a nice way for them to know what I'm up to.
Love this post! My Husband and I are moving in the next year to North Carolina and all of our family is currently in Baltimore. Right now we are less than 5 minutes away, but it will soon be 5 hours. It is so important to make sure to keep in touch
Ah, this is a great post. Social media really comes into its own when you have folks some distance away. My parents live hundreds of miles from us and they appreciate seeing my kids grow up on Facebook. As for letters, writing them is a bit of a dying art! People still love getting snail mail!
We had grandparents that lived over 1000 miles away for many years. It was a lot of work to keep in close touch with them, but worth the effort!
I live six hours from my family, so I definitely needed this. Facebook has been the most effective tool for me to share with family because it is so easy to post pictures and updates and more of my family uses Facebook than any other platform. Great tips!
These are great ideas! I'm blessed to have most of my family close to me, but these would be great things to do for the aunts and uncles that are across the country.
Personally snail mail is my favorite. Who doesn't like to open the mailbox and have something other than bills or junk? 🙂