How to Make Living Far Away from Family Easier

Living far away from family is not easy. But although you may not be able to see your family as often as you'd like, there are some things you can do to make living far away from family easier.

Start a Family Newsletter

Most of my family lives in Oregon and I live in Texas. I haven't seen my family for over two years. Since the minutes on my phone are limited I am not able to make many phone calls home. I also have a huge family and being able to call all of them, even if I had the minutes, would be nearly impossible.

I wanted a way for me and my family to be able to stay up to date on what is going on in with each other. My solution was to start a monthly family newsletter where anyone in the family could share stories, news, or announcements with everyone else.

I absolutely love doing this and it has been a great way for all of us to stay in touch. It has definitely made living far away from family easier for me. If you have the time, starting a family newsletter can be a great way to stay in touch.

Email and Messenger Services

If you're like me and you can't make phone calls to your family very often, communicating through email and instant messenger services are great.

I like instant messenger services because you can have actual conversations with each other. Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and most email services also provide instant messaging services. If you haven't signed up for one, you should try it, and invite your family to sign up to. It'll make living far away from family easier.

Social networks

Websites such as myspace.com, facebook.com, and twitter are great ways to stay in touch with family. Twitter allows you to create a brief profile of yourself and to make updates about what you are doing. On MySpace and Facebook you get to create a more extensive profile, upload photos, and share your status.

Even if you don't like social networking sites, you can create a private profile and only include your family as those allowed to view your profile. You'll be able to view each other's status and see new photos that are posted. I love being able to do this with my family. It's certainly a good way to make living far away from family easier.

Web cams

If you have a web cam and Internet this is perhaps one of the best ways to stay in touch with family when you live far away. There is software available online such as Skype that you can download for free that allows you to talk face to face with others on Skype. Some instant messaging services also allow you to talk to others on your friends list through web cam.

Web cams are really great because it's the closest you can get to being with your family without being there in person. If you don't have a web cam, you might want to consider buying one, you can find some for less than $20, and it's worth it.

Living far away from family is not easy, but if you try some of these ways to stay in touch, it will make living far away from family easier.