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For me, it's not guilt as much as wishing they were closer. We're 2.5 hours (by plane) away from my family and 6 hours away from DH's. We don't have any intention of moving any time soon though - we love where we live, and it's worth it to us to live farther from our parents in order to live here. We share a near continuous stream of photos and videos with our family though, and Skype when we think of it.

We live far from our family and after having our LO (13 weeks) it has become more difficult. I never felt guilty, and still don't but I think I would if I had moved away after having LO. When we visit 'home' we are reminded of the reasons we live far away...with that said, we are still considering moving closer but only if a lucrative job opportunity presents itself.

Is your family willing to travel? My family (mainly mom and sister) fly down at least once a month which makes the distance much more manageable.

Also, could you move to somewhere that you have an established network? Friends are sometimes the best family you can have!

We don't have a little one yet but I still feel some guilt. We are an eight hour drive or a ninety minute flight (but the drives to and from the airport add quite a bit of time.) We didn't expect to stay here as long as we have but we love it here and have put down roots.

Last year my father passed away after a year long battle with cancer and it was really hard balancing life here with spending as much time with him as possible. Financially it was challenging to deal with it but thankfully we were able to swing it.

Another tricky thing is how we use vacation time, we usually wind up using a full week of vacation time for Christmas and every other year we take another week long vacation with my inlaws and usually we wind up taking off a few odd days for long weekends to see family. It is great that we get this time with them but we find ourselves lacking in vacation time to use for down time for ourselves. (And as much as I love them, family visits aren't vacation!)

That being said, it would be really hard to convince us to move. When I daydreamed as a young adult about what our neighborhood would look like it may as well have been our current town. It is absolutely perfect for us, it is a great place to raise kids and we have a friends and a community here. The town where our parents live doesn't offer a lot of things that are important to us and the cost of living is astronomical in other cities near them.

So, there is guilt but we try to squeeze as many visits in as we can. Ultimately, we think it is worth it but there are some hard times. It certainly isn't an easy decision to make though!

Guilt? Absolutely not, since DH has to go where his (fairly specialized) jobs are. But I do wish we were closer. OK, I wish we were closer to *my* family. Ha.

I wish we were closer to my family. DS will only get to see them a few times a year.

I loved when I grew up there was so much family near by and always something going on.

No guilt, but I'm really sad E won't grow up with a mess of cousins like I did.

my parents would love it if we moved closer. but after i recent trip, i really realized how much i love ny (vs. la) and i'm not willing to move right now. free babysitters and time with grandparents is awesome.... but i guess i must really love it here for it to be worth it!

@Mrs. Sketchbook: Yes! Definitely. It's the right thing for DH now though. My family understands and we fly back and forth as much as we can - makes me sad that it's only once a year. Apart for 20 minutes or so at Heathrow airport en route elsewhere I haven't seen my Dad in almost 2 years

DH family *could* easily drive to see us in less than a day. Both his dad and his mom (they're long separated) have only made the effort once each in the two years+ we've been here. So no, I don't feel guilty in the least about being far from them.

I feel conflicted about the distance we are from my family. We are a 4 hour plane flight away from my parents and about a 2 hour drive from DH's parents and a few siblings. My parents have been good about coming out but now my mom has some health issues which are making things more complicated. We see DH's parents/extended family once every 1-2 months. Plus there are 5 cousins under 5 on DH's side and no cousins on mine, so those visits are more "fun" for LO.

I love where we live but we are here for med school, which means residency is looming next year. We hope to find a place that is a good fit program-wise for DH and a good fit life-wise for me, LO and possibly a future LO #2. If I really felt that moving back to the midwest to be near my family was right, we could probably swing it. But I am not sure it is the right move...thus the conflicted! SIGH

Both DH and I have always had wanderlust. I moved from the Midwest to the east coast for college, then eventually moved to Europe. DH left his family in Europe for Asia, another European country and then the US. We currently live across the ocean from my family and a few countries over from DH's. I think we are both just really used to living far away. I. don't let myself feel guilty, this is the life I wanted/chose. I would feel worse if I were living at home and had never ventured out to see the world. I also LOVE that are children will grow up in an international environment because DH's job will likely take us to other countries in the future.