Keeping in touch with loved ones across the miles.

Family is very important to me. I cherish the close relationships I have with my loved ones and love spending time with them. Unfortunately our family live miles away so spending time with them in person is not a regular occurrence. 

As loved ones are important to me and I don’t get to see them often I value keeping in touch with the people closest to my heart which helps keep our relationships and love for each other strong. Another reason I make sure to have consistent communication with family is for Bug to know his family and for them to see him growing and changing in-spite of the many miles between us across the land in the UK or in some cases thousands of miles across the oceans to far flung countries.

To we keep in touch with family and close friends from a distance we -

Send postcards

When I was a child whenever we went on holidays, even short breaks in the UK or had a special day out we would always send a postcard to our loved ones. As well as sending postcards I have always loved receiving postcards from friends and family, seeing the picture on the postcard and reading the short note about what they have been getting up to.

As I love postcards and sentimentally have the postcards I have been sent from loved ones tucked away in my treasured memory box, I have carried on the tradition of sending postcards to loved ones.  I love sharing the art of sending postcards with Bug who loves to scribble his love on the postcard before popping it in the post box.  Sending postcards is a lovely short and sweet way to keep in touch with family across the miles.

Put pen to paper

As I love the old fashioned art of writing letters I often sit and put pen to paper to write letters to loved ones who live miles away. I love sharing our family news through the lost art of letter writing and when Bug is older writing letters to his family (and hopefully a pen pal) will be a great way for him to practice his writing skills. Bug loves creating drawings and paintings that we send to our far flung family along with a photograph or two and a handwritten letter of love and stories of our fun and adventures.

Send care packages and gift parcels

Due to the distance between us and a number of our close family and friends it is not often that we get to see them for birthdays or Christmas so we bridge the gap between us and give gifts by sending them in the post or via courier service.

Not only do we send gift parcels for birthdays and Christmas we also send good old-fashioned care packages filled with goodies to cherish and enjoy. Bug loves creating craft masterpieces and baking tasty treats to send to his Nana in a super special care package which thanks to express delivery gets to her safely in no time at all for her to enjoy Bug’s treats and little gifts made with love.

It is a very rewarding feeling putting together a loving care package to send to loved ones, especially when you know they are going rough patch. Sending a little loving care package is a long distance equivalent to a big warm hug.

Phone

A quick and easy way that we keep in touch with family and friends is picking up the phone and giving them a call. Bug loves babbling away down the phone to his family and they love hearing his voice and developing language skills as he tells them all about his adventures and interests. Talking to his family has also been a great way for Bug to develop relationships with family who he rarely sees due to the miles between us and them.

I find phone calls are an easy way to keep in touch with loved ones as they are a great way of quickly keeping loved ones up-to-date with news, especially exciting news which is always great to share with those you hold dear in your heart. Phone calls can also be the easiest way to keep in touch and communicate with family members who are not tech-savvy to be able to keep in touch via modern technology (or those who would rather not turn to modern technology).

Photo credit

Skype

Skyping with family and friends is a cheap solution to phone calls especially when we are keeping in touch with loved ones who live abroad. Bug loves chatting with family via Skype with the video turn on and they love being able to see Bug, noticing how quickly he is growing and changing. Using Skype has been a great way to keep in touch with family we rarely get to see in person and it has been very useful in developing and strengthening relationships between Bug and his family, with Bug enjoying being able to see his family and hear their voice at the same time.

Photos

As well as sending family special photos through the post and creating photo calendars as gifts, we also use photo website accounts that allow us to create virtual photo albums so that we can share our lives and adventures in photographs with our loved ones even across the miles.  As the saying goes 'a picture is worth a thousand words', making the use of photographs to keep in touch with family a great way of showcasing your life and adventures to others.

Social Media

Thanks to the digital age we live in social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter and apps like Instagram help us stay connected with friends and family extremely easily regardless of the miles between us and them.  Using Social Media means we can share our daily life and adventures with family and friends plus keep up-to-date with what our loved ones are doing too.  Sharing status updates, messages, photos and videos means family and friends across the globe can keep in touch on a regular basis and make it feel as if the miles in-between disappear. 

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Whilst we may not have the luxury of living close to family thanks to the digital age we live in plus a mix of low tech ways of communicating we are able to keep in touch with family and close friends regardless of the number of miles between us.

Do you have friends or family who live far away?  How do you keep in touch?

* In collaboration with TNT *