If you have family overseas

[catsjammies]

How are you managing not knowing when you're going to see them again? I was supposed to go to my home country for a visit over Easter and our flights were cancelled. I hadn't seen my family in a year already, and now I have no idea when we might all see each other again. I have a 1yo and 3yo and it's so hard knowing the little one might be almost 2 before they all see him again, when the last time they saw him he was only a few weeks old.

I keep seeing people talking about being annoyed they can't fly because they want to go on holiday and it makes me so (unreasonably!) cross!

How's everyone else dealing with the no-flying for the foreseeable?

It's awful. I am going through the same thing. The only way to deal with it is to take each day one day at a time. Don't look too far into the future. The situation seems to change quickly, so there's no way of predicting what will happen. I have many friends in the same situation, some who have had babies with no idea when they will meet their grandparents.
We will see our families again, and when we do it'll be so worth the wait.

I try not to think about it too much. And who knows, things may change sooner than we expect! I have A LOT of WhatsApp video call sessions with my parents and they have actually started playing with my 3yo on WhatsApp whilst I wash up etc, so at least they are getting their grandparent/grandchild interaction. Shame that you can't cuddle via WhatsApp though. I have decided to move my family over to my home country when things get a bit better with the virus, so I'm focussing my mental energy on thinking about what that would look like and what practical things we would have to think about.

It's all very uncertain but it won't be forever. I found that by WhatsApping my family and best friend more I'm actually closer to them now than I was when we were able to visit.

One day at a time and keep busy.

There's nothing else for it. I know I may very well never see the elderly family again, but I just choose not to think about it. Keep busy. Always busy.

It’s awful. I’m in the same position and I hate the not knowing. Even when we can fly, I can’t stay with my parents as they are in their 80s.

Makes me very cross that everyone is just popping to see their mum when out for a walk. Or complaining that they can’t see both parents at the same time.

I was planning to visit my family over Easter too. I'm sad that I didn't get to see them, but I'm pretty sure I'll see them at some point next year.

I've been abroad for more than a decade so I've had a lot of saying goodbye to elderly family members knowing I might not see them again.

My in-laws live in England and my family live in the US.
My children haven't seen their grandparents in over five years so we thought we would go to England and see them this summer. It was especially important for us to go because my lovely MIL had been diagnosed with cancer and my husband has really suffered not being with his Mum.

CV19 has completely halted our family business (we own an event photography business) and we are surviving on our savings. We can no longer go to England because of the virus but we can't go now because we no longer have the money to fund a trip out.

We have no idea if our business will survive and of course, if it did, we don't know when we will be able to visit our in-laws again.

My husband calls his Mum every few days and we are trying to get her up with technology to have video calls but it's not the same.

It's a pretty shit time right now but what else can we do?

It was not so long ago (only two generations in my family) that many people left the "old countries" seeking a better life, knowing they would never see their parents, siblings, childhood friends… ever again. Communication was by letter only and it would take several months to send a letter and receive a reply.

At least we might have the chance to do so, and we do have the technology to see their faces and hear their voices when we can't be there in person.