Whether you have family members living across the state or in another country entirely, staying in touch as much as you would like can be tricky. However, to stay close and adequately maintain those healthy family relationships you must find ways to connect effectively. The good news is you can discover some of the most effective ways to stay connected to a family that does not live locally in the post below. Read on to find out more.
Social media and messaging
One great way to stay in contact with far-flung families is to use social media and messaging services. Using social media platforms like Facebook can work well because it allows you to see what your family members have been doing even when there is a big time difference.
Such platforms also include messaging services, and there are independent ones as well like Whatsapp that can also be used. You can even send short voice and video messages through these services now, and make use of asynchronous communication that is still very personalized.
Video calling
Another highly effective method of staying in contact with family overseas is video calling. Most phones, tablets, and computers have video calling capabilities now, so it’s easy to speak face-to-face with a loved one in a matter of seconds.
Indeed, there are specialist products on the market like Facebook Portal that track your movements as you call, providing a much more dynamic and natural experience.
One of the downsides of video calling is that it can be tricky for those who have a family in a timezone that is not similar to their own. After all, if someone has to stay up until the middle of the night to make a video call it will impact their day and probably make the opportunities for video calling minimal.
Writing letters & emailing
Back before the advent of all this technology, people got by writing letters to keep in contact. Indeed, the physical act of sitting down to write a letter using a nice pen and paper and committing your thoughts can be a lot of fun for some people.
Unfortunately, the downside of letter writing is that it can take a while for your correspondence to arrive, and can make the back-and-forth of the conversation quite slow.
With that in mind, you may want to use the 21st-century version of letter writing and email instead. Emails are pretty much instantaneous, and you can write as much or as little as you like, as well as send images if you’re not much of a writer, but love to chat, you can use voice typing to make things even easier.
Sending gifts and money
Another way to nurture relationships with family members that live far away is to make sure you celebrate important occasions like birthdays, and anniversaries by sending cards and gifts.
The issue that many people run into here is that while posting a card is relatively budget-friendly, sending any sort of substantially sized or weighted gift can cost a fortune, in addition to the price of the gift itself.
The good news is there is a cost-effective alternative. It’s sending a gift card so the person in question can buy the item they most want for themselves. You can even use tools like this gift card rate calculator to work out the best kind of gift card to send overseas. Something that means you can be sure the person receiving it will get the maximum value.
In addition to sending gifts, many people like to find ways to earn some extra money and send it to family members living overseas. For many, this is an established way of living, and overseas family members can depend on the money they receive from relatives working in more economically developed countries.
Visiting
Finally, to maintain a close connection with family that live far away it’s essential that you do your best to see them face-to-face as regularly as possible. This means visiting them abroad or hosting them so they can come and stay with you.
Often the best way to do this is to live together during this time, as this means the traveling party only has to have their outgoing and return tickets to worry about. Additionally, searching for the cheapest flights, even if that means layovers or flying at suboptimal times can help lower the cost and make it possible for you to visit loved ones living in a far-flung place more regularly.
However, if an in-person visit is out of the question right now, then using the rest of the methods mentioned above can be very helpful in maintaining that close family connection, no matter how far away your relative resides.
