Sometimes, you can’t visit your parents during the holidays. You can’t get the time off from your job. You live too far away. You have obligations to your children. You feel guilty. You can show your mom and dad you love and care for them even at a distance. 8 Ways to Stay Connected From a Distance
- Send cards. Everyone loves to have cards. Homemade cards, store-bought cards, outrageously flamboyant cards…it doesn’t matter.
- Communicate. Call your parents, even if for only a few minutes. If they’re tech-savvy, this is even easier, because you can text or email them or post on their Facebook page.
- Set up a conference call and bring the whole family together.
- Substitute a sibling. Ask your sibling to take them out to dinner or do something special in your name. Yes, you’ll owe your sibling a favor, but you’ve been trading favors all your lives, haven’t you?
- Send them videos or audio. Have the kids record a special holiday message. Post it on their Facebook page, send it to them by mail or text it—whichever is most suitable to your parents’ level of technical proficiency.
- Set up a time to Skype and make cookies or open presents online together.
- Send a special ornament.
- Have your kids decorate a Thanksgiving or Christmas tablecloth and send it.
Celebrating the holidays long-distance can be a trial or it can be a way for the entire family to come closer together.