Ideal and Acceptable distance from Kids and Grandkids (grandparents, moving, gorgeous)
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What is everyone's idea of the perfect distance to be from your kids and grandkids?
Here's our scenario. We are still in our 50's but wife already retired and me going to retire in the next 6 months. Son with 2 grandkids in Seattle and daughter (no kids and none likely) in eastern Washington. I was considering moving to southern Oregon (a bit sunnier and warmer) which is 7+ hours to either location. Has anyone done something similar, and how did that work out? We are currently healthy and easily able to drive the 7 hours.
when we looked in to a 2nd home we drew a 2 hour window around the kids .
We are considering that but it would put us in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain range in a sparsely populated community that gets a ton of snow but it is gorgeous. I don't know if we can hack the small town life or shoveling snow for 5 months of the year. Maybe an hour to the outer Seattle suburbs so the remoteness isn't too far from the city.
Driving far in New England in winter isn't our thing. We now live 45 min from the two grandkids. When son gets the house built, they will be living in another direction, but it's still about 45–50 min from here to there. I prefer the drive to where they live now, as it's all highway. The new place will be rural. Not thrilled about that. We'd like to extend the drive to 4 or 5 hours to move out of state, but that puts us on seriously trafficked highway around a major metro. OK now maybe, but we don't want to be doing that year-round in our 70s and 80s.
We are currently 6 hours from my retired parents, and generally see them 2ce a year.
Unfortunately, it is mostly us taking time off from work and traveling to see them since they seem unwilling to drive to see us, despite being retired and having all the time in the world. They see my sister a couple times a month - she lives an hour away from them.
I'm three blocks away from my one and only grandchild, who just had her first birthday last week. I'm a very involved grandmother -- I babysit two days a week, and usually see daughter, son-in-law, and grandbaby a third time during the week.
I sold my house and moved 250 miles to be closer to them. I've been extremely happy with the decision. The other grandmother lives 1 1/2 hours away, and complains that she doesn't get to see the grandbaby as much as she would like, but she chose to live where she does.
So, to answer the OP's question, for me, three blocks away is the ideal distance. I realize not everyone feels the same.
We are currently 6 hours from my retired parents, and generally see them 2ce a year.
Unfortunately, it is mostly us taking time off from work and traveling to see them since they seem unwilling to drive to see us, despite being retired and having all the time in the world. They see my sister a couple times a month - she lives an hour away from them.
I grew up about 6 hours from my grandparents and they never came to our house so it was more like what you described. In our case though, we travel to see our kids much more than the reverse and I expect that to be the case for years.
I'm three blocks away from my one and only grandchild, who just had her first birthday last week. I'm a very involved grandmother -- I babysit two days a week, and usually see daughter, son-in-law, and grandbaby a third time during the week.
I sold my house and moved 250 miles to be closer to them. I've been extremely happy with the decision. The other grandmother lives 1 1/2 hours away, and complains that she doesn't get to see the grandbaby as much as she would like, but she chose to live where she does.
So, to answer the OP's question, for me, three blocks away is the ideal distance. I realize not everyone feels the same.
That is more what my wife would prefer as well...we would probably need to spend $850K to buy a house we would like where my son lives or choose to live in an apartment which is not our preference. We've talked about moving an hour away and buying a house for maybe $400K.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We are 25 miles from the grandkid now and wish we could see him more than 1-2 times a month, but when we retire we will definitely need to be in a less expensive area, as much as 3 hours away. With the equity we will be able to pay cash, and having no mortgage will be important to our financial situation. I think it's more important to be closer when they are 0-5 years old, after that they will have a lot of activities and homework, not as much time to spend with the grandparents, but will be old enough to come for a week or more during summer.
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OK now maybe, but we don't want to be doing that year-round in our 70s and 80s.
They see my sister a couple times a month - she lives an hour away from them.
