Long-distance Family Relationships
This is my first contribution to Multicultural Kids Blogs for their Blogging Carnival. Members are invited to share on the topic of Bilingual Children and Long-distance Family Relationships.
In Singapore where I live, most families get together for weekend dinners at least once a week. In fact, this culture of dining together is so important that there is a Eat with Your Family Day where employers encourage employees to leave early to eat dinner together.
Well, in our case, most of our family members (extended included) aren't around in the same country so we miss out on these weekly get-togethers. Having gone through so many transient living situations growing up, one thing that I've made the most out of that - was:
1) Family doesn't always have to mean Blood-Ties
And by this I mean, the definition of Family is extended to friends, colleagues, people from your hometown, god-parents and the like. There is often a lively expatriate community made up of people from the same country in big and small cities around the world. Most of these gatherings congregate to share food, celebrate culture-specific events or just to hang out and speak the same language. And even in the absence of my "fellow countrymen", I've managed in some of the places where I've lived, to form relationships with other peers and they've become an extended family of sorts, giving support and looking out for one another.
Now that we are based in Singapore- I have a great network of people whom I round up as my FAMILY POSSE - they include my husband's colleagues who come around for Sukiyaki and Beers on the weekend to my colleagues who are my child's godparents.
2) Diminishing Geographical Boundaries through Technology
When my sister lived in London and I was in Tokyo, we sometimes skyped. SKYPE remains one of the best ways to keep in touch with family around the world. My husband skypes with his parents and although my child is too young to speak coherently, we put her on the phone and camera so that the grandparents can see how she is growing up despite living so far away.
LINE is another application that we use to keep in touch, share news or photos. We've formed a Family Group where we will check in and write whenever we feel the need to. Sometimes, one of the family members visit the grandparents and we will share whatever photos that has been shared to the group.
3) Care Packages via Snail Mail
These are so dear to my heart that whenever we get one (about 2 - 3 times a year), my heart just swells up inside. I savour everything- from the stamps to the handwriting to the crumpled newspaper packaging that I take out, smooth out the creases to read dated articles!
My baby is still young but the grandparents have use these Care Packages to send their love- by way of clothing, toys, towels (how did they know we needed heaps of these?!) and handmade items. Everytime we use something from these care packages we know that despite them being so far away, they are closeby, in our hearts.
I intend to keep up with this tradition by sending more printed photos and little drawings from our children. We sent the grandparents a Calendar for 2015 with the months printed with photos of our baby growing up and they put it up in their dining room so they can be 'close to us'.
What about you?
What do you do to bond with your long-distance family?