<p>What ways have you found are best to deal with the distance between child & parents? Are you scheduling phone calls? How often works for you? Do you arrange video chat time? A game visit a semester with child coming home for major holidays? What do you do to gap the distance?</p>
<p>My niece will be over 2600 miles away from family, though within an hour or so there will be several extended family members who she can rely on. I thought those with experience with this already might have some great advice.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is for everyone, but because of my extreme inability to respond to alarm clocks, I’ve had my mom give me wake-up calls. In the mornings, we talk for about fifteen minutes – mostly to make sure that I’m really awake – about plans for the day, recent tests, etc. I think that’s really helped, mostly because I’ll forget to call otherwise.</p>
<p>SsPixie17x- that’s a great idea!</p>
<p>I usually called my parents every couple of days. They let me call on nights when I didn’t have as much work. If they hadn’t heard from me, they’d call Sunday afternoons when they knew I wasn’t doing anything. Some of my biggest advice is not to call too often during the first couple weeks - it’ll only make homesickness worse.<br>
My dad would visit about once or twice a term. When he had business trips to Boston, he’d stay the weekend and I’d join him in the hotel. It’s so nice to get off campus for just a night or two, even if it’s just a couple miles away. Packages are a great way to bridge the gap. Favorite candy, movies, new clothes, etc. are a nice reminder that someone’s thinking of us.</p>
<p>We have found video chat to be a great way to stay in touch…and check on how clean the room is…
Webcams are very inexpensive these days, although depending on bandwidth you might want to do audio over a landline/cell phone.</p>
<p>ill probably text my dad pretty much everyday,
and ill call home maybe a couple of times a week…
at least once a week.</p>
<p>my parents didnt feel the need to know every single thing my brother was doing when he went away last year for hockey,
and i imagine it will be similar with me,
except im much more of a talker than him :)</p>
<p>I’ll probably talk to my dad a few times a week. Friends way more often than that. :D</p>