How to Show your Family you Love them whilst Living Abroad

Busy schedules have become everyone's reality. Between working full time, running errands and making sure your household is in tip-top shape, you can barely make time for yourself, let alone family who lives thousands of miles away. Nevertheless, you need to make effort. Somehow, always the ones who move away are held responsible for keeping in touch, so you need to be the initiator of everything. One of the great ideas is to set a specific day of the week and schedule video calls. Be it Friday night or Sunday morning, you'll have one day of the week when at a certain time you'll all gather on a group chat and discuss the past week.
That will be the perfect time to share family rituals and milestones. Have you had family brunches before you moved away? There’s no reason why you can’t do the same now. Just via a video call. Put together a small meal for yourself and let everyone else set up a table and make it look like you’re actually having brunch in the same room. Group chats are the perfect time for having family discussions to work through difficulties as well.

Thanks to technology, you can stay connected all the time. You won’t even feel like you’re living in a different country if you only make effort and do your best to stay consistent with your communication. Create group chats on apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, or Facebook Messenger, for example. When you don’t have the time for a long call, just share experiences quickly and discuss them during your regular video call. Make sure you share both good and bad experiences, just as you would if you still lived with your family. That will show the family that you value their advice.

A random act of kindness is always deeply appreciated. That’s why you should send your family and friends presents even when it’s not their birthday, anniversary or Christmas. If you saw that a book your sister wanted for too long is available again, don’t wait until Christmas, but buy it for her and ship it immediately.

Adding a personal touch to a gift is always a great way to show how much you care. Nothing says I love you and I miss you more than sending your mum flowers, just because you felt like it. Luckily, today you can find international delivery at many florists, and make your mum’s, grandma’s, or aunt’s day with a few simple clicks. Many online floral services offer affordable and efficient overseas flower delivery for all kinds of flowers. Pick out the ones that your mum would like the most and make her entire week happier. Flowers have always been the symbol of love and friendship, but also they’ve shown that you’re sympathetic, and always wish well to the person you’re offering the flowers.

We’ve all been preoccupied with Instagram and Facebook ever since we first created our accounts, so you might as well put them to good use now. From regular posts to your feed to daily updates on your stories, keeping your family in the loop through social media will be a great way for them to feel like you’re still close by. Now, even the smallest and, at the first thought, a meaningless event such as having coffee with friends, cooking or shopping, will mean the world to your family once they see it on your Instagram story. They’ll be able to comment on your photos and videos and the distance won’t be as noticeable all the time. Plus, you’ll show that you care about them knowing you’re well and want to keep them updated to your daily activities.

While books and similar presents will make your family happy, you can also send them a more customized but less palpable present that they'll appreciate even more. How about making a customized playlist— “Songs to Brighten Your Day” for them? If you have little nephews and cousins, think about recording yourself reading to them. Alongside audio surprises, think about sending video treats too. You know how everybody’s into vlogs now, well, why not make one of your own and show them how one of your regular days looks like. Tape yourself doing mundane things and those more important, and upload it to either YouTube or simply ship it to everyone so they can watch it during family reunions.
Living abroad is never easy. That’s especially true when you have an entire family back in your home country and you’ve moved away to create a life for yourself without them in it. However, thanks to the modern age, today you can find a full spectrum of creative ways to show your family you love them and always will, no matter how far away you are. Therefore, do your best to always surprise them with little gifts that will mean the world to them. Stay in touch via video calls and group chats, and don’t forget that the small act of kindness goes a long way.