To be able to live near family and friends is quite the luxury. A simple lunch date with your parents or best friend is just a call or text away when you live near them, but when you’re miles apart, that lunch date isn’t so simple.
When you move far away from your hometown, or if you’re in a traveling family, like the military, you can quickly start to feel distant from your loved ones. This aspect can be very hard for children. Luckily, with the advancements in technology and DIY trends, there are more creative and unique ways to share love and life despite the miles apart.
Keep Calm and Stay Social… Social Media That is!
Social media has been one of the biggest platforms for staying connected with friends (old and new) and family. According to pewresearch.org, 67% of people utilizing social media say that they’re using it to keep in touch with the friends and immediate family they currently have and interact with.
In this day and age, you almost have to use social media to keep up with your kids… and they live in the same house as you! How crazy is that!
Facebook is more so the social media platform for family. You, of course, can connect with friends too, but you tend to see a lot more family-friendly posts and pictures.
Instagram is more for connecting with your friends. With Instagram, all you can do is post videos and pictures, whereas with Facebook you can make a post simply talking about something, as well as post videos and pictures.
In other words, the way the two platforms are really separated is that some of the things you may want to say or post, might not be suitable for Facebook so you post it on Instagram. It’s just one of those things. The things you may want to say or do may be totally harmless but it might make your grandparents and aunts and uncles scratch their head a bit
If You Can’t Meet in the Real World, Meet in the Digital World
This digital world I’m speaking of is essentially the world of gaming! Video games are a great way to connect with family that’s not in close proximity to you! These games allow multiple players to connect, and if you have the right accessories, you can actually talk to them!
Games that send you on a quest is a great way for families to connect. You just need their screen name and then you can team up with them to go into battle. If you do choose to go with gaming to bring your two worlds together, you’ll need either a console with controllers or a PC with a gaming mouse for precision aiming and a headset. Great games include:
- League of Legends
- Rocket League
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Care Packages Aren’t Just for College Students…
Typically when you hear the word “care package,” you think of a box filled with chips, cookies, money, candy, toiletries, and other fun stuff for your kid who’s off to college. Well, care packages aren’t meant just for the college kids. Care packages are exactly what they say they are. They’re packages you sent to people to let them know you care about them and are thinking about them.
For a loved one that lives far away, a care package can be one of the kindest gestures you can do to show someone you care. There are so many different gift ideas you can do to send your loved one.
- Memorabilia specific to your location (sports apparel and city/state souvenirs)
- Homemade food items (freeze pies, cakes, and cookies)
- Framed family photos
Send Pieces of Your Family to Their Family
The way technology has advanced now, there are different photo services out that can take one of your family photos and turn it into a puzzle… talk about family fun! The thing to remember with this is that you’re a family. Your pieces may be scattered all over the world, but when the pieces come together, they fit nestled in and tight.
