Guilt Living Far Away From Parents?

[Dayton Sux]

Just wanted to hear comments from folks who live far away from parents and/or
family. How do you deal with the guilt (or do you feel any at all?) I have
already made the decision because CA is best for me for a number of reasons.
Plus, I just feel like a fish out of water here (and yes, I am a
pisces!)

No, this should be a common experience. Maybe not guilt but being homesick and missing family ties.

THis was my case when I moved to Northern California. I was so homesick, even in such a beautiful area (I lived near Napa, then in downtown Sacramento).

So I took a job transfer to get as close as I could (which is was godforsaken Dayton Ohio), which was great since I am only 2 1/2 hours away from my kin in Kentucky, and can be a part of their lives a lot more than I could if I stayed on the West Coast....that made it worth the move. No regrets on that, tho my attitude to Dayton is that "I just work here". My heart will be where home is and that is down in Kentucky with my kin.

[TheOldPuss]

DH & I moved back close to where I grew up (town of about 250,000) from a city with a combined population of 3+million. Instead of being 5 hours away from family, we are anywhere to 30 min. to 2 hours away, with the exception of a neice/nephew who live out of state. We have been here over 2 years now, and recently had an epiphany. While living in the "big city" for over 25 years, I had formed many connections, and was unaware of how much my adopted home/friends meant to me until relocating and realizing that, while I was gone, life went on without me. That's the good news. The bad news is, life went on without me, and re-establishing relationships with old friends that knew me in high school is non-existent. This is an insular, hard drinking, workaholic city, and if you're not "from around here" or know someone "from around here", you are an outcast. I find that such is the case with me, born and bred here. I left, and it seems as though my "disloyalty" has branded me an outcast as well. Unless you break into a circle of friends at work, you are really on the outside looking in. God bless my DH for signing up for this adventure - he grew up in the metro area where we lived, and was laid off from his job. After a great work opportunity presented itself for him here - and we have great jobs, and that's also a silver lining - but we have decided that when we retire, it CANNOT be here, despite my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews having lived here all their lives. If I remain, I swear I will pull every hair on my head out. But for our family, we live a very isolated life, despite many efforts to connect. We plan to relocate back to the city, and, to be honest, I dread breaking the news. But for now, we are where we need to be and will make the most of it.

So, stay true north and make the best decisions for what makes you happy in this very short span of life that we are granted!