lansbury

Dream on, our kids are 40, 34 and 32 this year and a lot of what we do still ends up being what is best for one of them. Or the grandson really. Plans to buy an RV and tour the US have been thwarted by another grandson being born on April 25 (if he waits until the doctors do the C section), because Mrs L says we missed the first 2 years of our first grandson's life and she wants to be around for this one. Actually I think that is just an excuse she doesn't want to buy an RV really.

N1cky

Ooh! I'd definitely want to be close by if I have grandkids. But I figure I've got 10 years between daughter leaving high school and her having babies . I also assume, at this time, she will spend the majority of those 10 years living out of a smelly Jeep while travelling across the wilderness of the USA/Europe..., so it will make no difference where we live.

P.S. I'd do anything to avoid an RV, I don't blame your wife one tiny bit.

Pulaski

My in-laws moved next door when little Miss P was a baby, but then upped and moved to the far end of the state when she was three years old, just about the time she was getting more mobile and independent. .... Now it is apparently our fault that they don't see their granddaughter often enough! /

N1cky

That sucks.

Moving our daughter away from her Grandparents, is probably the most painful thing we've done to either of them

BunnyGirl

I'm dreading this too My son is the only grandchild (and my brother's dead set against having children) and my mum dotes on him. I hate that I'm taking him away from them but even my mum says that I'm doing the right thing, even though she'll miss him lots

Pulaski

Yeah, well it ain't my problem. ..... We presented them with a deal that most grandparents would jump at - we bought that house, and rented it to them for the mortgage payment. We partially renovated it too, at their request, removing a closet, closing up a doorway, and installing very nice 3½" cherry stained flooring through most of the house. They abandoned it voluntarily and I have no interest in inconveniencing myself to solve the problem they created.

N1cky

It can be extremely painful, it's good that your Mum understands, and hopefully she'll be able to visit you often.

If my Mum had still been alive, when we moved to the US, I'm not sure she would have ever spoken to me again. She was bad enough when we moved 150 miles away in the UK.

My in-laws like to travel, and can afford to come out here fairly often. So they actually get to spend more time with my daughter, than they would if we had stayed in the UK. Around 20 whole days a year, compared to the odd day it would have been in the UK. I can cope with it when I think of it this way.

Sadly, my Dad, is in no fit state to travel, he did manage it once just after we had moved. But all in, he's probably seen her for around 16 days in the last 7 years

BunnyGirl

Sorry about your dad Mine's kind of the same, he had a stroke 2 years ago so isn't great now. He's still ok to travel for a bit but I think, in a couple of years, he won't be able to. My OH has always said that potentially we could move to the UK to look after my parents if it comes to that - hopefully the stupid sponsorship rules will have eased by that point