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does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

Old Jan 10th 2012, 12:38 pm
  #1  
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Default does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I LOVE my family very much don't get me wrong but I don't really
miss them, with Skype and Facebook I think it bridges the gap alot.
It's funny when people ask me "awww do you miss them", and my response is
uuuummm "no not really"
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 1:15 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

When we lived in England from 1979 to 1991, we saw my parents maybe twice a year and my sister about the same (us in Devon/Somerset, them in Kent/Sussex.) Talked to my mother on the phone once a week. So one of the rationales of moving to the US to be closer to my in-laws, was we'd probably see my family just as much. Long-term though, my parents grew old, needed support, died. If I'd been in England I could have made more frequent short visits and helped my sister more with the stressful support that in the event destroyed her marriage & adversely affected her mental health. And my kids and her's are more or less strangers to each other, having grown up in different countries, and there's no repairing that.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 1:33 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I try and go home home every couple of years, in the 13 years I have been here my Father has been out 9 times, Brother 4 & Sister once.

I believe that once my Father passes, I will probably never see my Sister again, my Brother comes out every few years, even offered to pay for my Sisters flight.

I skype with my Father, but as to actually missing people, no not really, the friends as I expected have all dropped off, not concerned.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 1:43 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

Just to add, in the twenty + years we've lived here no member of my family has ever been to the US to visit us. My brother does come to Florida I believe, he might even own a property there, I'm not sure, but certainly never been up here..
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 1:49 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

Originally Posted by fsm
I try and go home home every couple of years, in the 13 years I have been here my Father has been out 9 times, Brother 4 & Sister once.

I believe that once my Father passes, I will probably never see my Sister again, my Brother comes out every few years, even offered to pay for my Sisters flight.

I skype with my Father, but as to actually missing people, no not really, the friends as I expected have all dropped off, not concerned.
I keep in touch with family by phone, and friends via Facebook. We have quite a larf on FB going over the good old days. I suppose I do miss the face to face ching wags, and all that kind of stuff, too.

Jim.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 1:56 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I miss them.

I don't miss seeing them as such, more that if I need to, I will be able to *get* to them.

After 6+ years we are going home, for me, that give me/us peace.

I discovered (while living here) that I need to be home now.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 2:02 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I Skype my dad, my brothers arnt very techie and havnt got a Facebook
but I play words with friends with the one everyday so I can text him via that.
I have Facebook friends from school, someone recently got a page together for
our year at school so it's been fun getting in contact that way and 2 of my bestfriemds from years ago got
in contact via that and they came over for 2 weeks in August - that was so cool! I hadn't seen them for 16 years and it was like we had never been apart
my dads been here a few times but my brothers havnt - weird life eh..
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 2:15 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I miss mine. Didn't think I would, but I do. Mainly my dad because given my parents are divorced I saw him less back home anyway.

My mates, too. Everything, really
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 2:17 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

Originally Posted by ohwottodo
I Skype my dad, my brothers arnt very techie and havnt got a Facebook
but I play words with friends with the one everyday so I can text him via that.
I have Facebook friends from school, someone recently got a page together for
our year at school so it's been fun getting in contact that way and 2 of my bestfriemds from years ago got
in contact via that and they came over for 2 weeks in August - that was so cool! I hadn't seen them for 16 years and it was like we had never been apart
my dads been here a few times but my brothers havnt - weird life eh..
Good point, different points of contact work with different people. Our son now lives in England, he's been there since 2006. He and I keep in contact daily via email.. and I don't mean we write each other a little letter each day. Our favourite is to send each other estate agent's listings, he's looking in Cambridge & I'm looking in South Devon. We'll send a link with a waspish remark about the seventies decor or the wallpaper in the second bedroom or whatever, on a good day we shoot 20 or 30 emails back and forth. I see him 2 or 3 times every year, for instance he was just over for Christmas, but the almost daily contact makes a big difference even though the content isn't that weighty!!
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 6:29 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I never get homesick or culture shock, and I don't really miss my family all that much. I see them every week on Skype, before I moved out here I spoke on the phone every couple of weeks, so it's technically an improvement even if I don't stay with them for xmas and such.

I'm actually slightly glad that I won't have to deal with them much as they get older (already missed two funerals) so I don't have to remember them so much in such a state.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 6:53 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I lived in London, both my sons in West Yorkshire. So on a daily or even monthly basis no difference being here. I have a UK number they can call on their cell phone minutes for free, they don't have landlines so saves me the higher cost of calling just to chat. There's Facebook, Skype, email etc and they come for a visit about as often as they did in the UK.

The one thing I do miss is my old mates from The Job. They are meeting in a London pub Thursday and once again I'll miss out on reliving the good old days and the friendship that went with it. We'll be back next year for my older sons wedding so I'll have to sling enough pints down my throat to make up for the ones I've missed.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 7:06 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I had a very small close family anyway and sadly many of them have passed away in the time I've been in the US. So the reality is that I really don't miss my family any more. My closest relative is uncommunicative and seemingly increasingly bitter that I left the UK, so he's really not a pull for me going back to see him. Other than him, the other relatives are more in the category of people I'll visit when I'm in the UK as opposed to people I feel close to.

I feel much closer to friends from when I lived in the UK, and people from my childhood who I have reconnected with. If I do spend part of the year in the UK in retirement, I suspect those friends will be much more a part of my life than my relatives. In some ways this is a little sad, but it is what it is. As I've said in other threads, I believe you have to latch onto people who are actually interested in you and vice versa.

Last edited by Giantaxe; Jan 10th 2012 at 7:09 pm.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 7:31 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I must say that this has been a really reassuring thread to read so far, thank you to everyone who's posted. I grew up in an expat family and only my immediate relatives live in the UK. I don't have the closest relationship with my family and whenever someone asks me if I miss my family, or if I'm going home for Xmas, it can be a bit awkward.

I haven't been home in years but my parents come out here fairly regularly which is nice. My sister's only made it over here once, and I paid for the flight (not begrudgingly, I did it willingly as a gift). I would love for her to come out again and bring my nephew this time but unless I pay, it's not going to happen. And she wants me to sponsor her for a GC once I become a USC Not at this rate. I'm much closer to my US in-laws and I'm grateful for that close connection. I do also feel lucky to have extended family to visit all over the world. It seems as though my family were just born to flee the uk
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 7:35 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I'm with you. I don't miss mine.
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Old Jan 10th 2012, 7:38 pm
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Default Re: does anyone actually not miss their family back home ? ;)

I'm the odd one out, it would seem. Though I did come from a reasonably small family.

Anyone on my side of the fence - is there anyone who honestly wouldn't really miss their in-laws if they were lucky enough to be able to move back to blighty
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