I am not a F/T as yet but will be in the next three years. My question is Family Married Children, Grand-kids and friends you have had for years. How log does it take to get over missing them and how often do you come back to visit?

Grandkids are what keeps us from going FT right now... we have one who is 9 and one that is 18 months... We all live within 5 miles of each other and it would be very difficult not being able to see them...Our 9 year old just came over yesterday to spend the day with his pappie..and the 18 month old was here today to see grammie... I figure is will be at least another year before we pull up roots and hit the road .. and I am sure we will be back for the holidays and the summers when the grand kids are out of school...patti

We actually FT so we CAN spend time with friends and family. DH and I have lived several places over the years and have immediate family all across the US. Grandkids and kids live in So. Ca. so we spend a lot of our time here but we also travel. We really thought when we started fulltiming 3 years ago that we would do a lot of "touristy" things but we have the most fun with family and friends. It's such a great way to visit because we either park in their driveway or in a CG nearby and spend as much time together as we want but also have our own space. We have renewed a lot of old friendships and spent more time with family in the past 3 years than any other time of our adult life.
We love this life !!!!

We are not Full-timing yet, but live away from 3 of our 5 grandchildren.  We also  moved away from most of family 10 years ago.  I guess this would be like leaving your family to full-time.  Visits which are a 19 hr drive one way is wonderful and sad when we leave again. It did get easier as time went by, but I still hate to leave them after a visit, but keep in touch via phone, webcast and e-mail.   The good part of full-timing is that we could take our house and go visit for an extended time instead of a week here and there.  Think of all the adventures you can share with them about place you will see between your visits when you do decide to full-time.

Nancy

We have 3 grown daughters and 1- 18 yr. old grandson. We are fulltimers but come back to Al. each year to visit them and spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. I also stay busy working on their houses doing repairs and improvments. One daughter has flown out to areas we were traveling through to spend a week with us so she has seen places she probably would not have gone to on her own. We work through problems they have on the phone while we are away. We also have a webcam on our computer so we can converse face to face.

Family is part of the reason we want to full-time. We have relatives spread all over the country. Our only grandchild is in Maryland, and we are in IL. I even have a cousin that moved to France. I don't guess we'll be towing a 5th wheel across the Atlantic to see her, but we sure would like to see our grandchild more often.

We are close to heading out, we may have about a year left on this assignment. One of our daughters is moving to Biloxi, one lives in TX, one son in MT and one son in NE. We have 5 grandchildren too. We live close to only one of the kids. We are so excited and anticipating moving around. We can not wait! Thanks for all your adventures.

We live near all of our kids and Grandkids and sometimes I think that can be a curse.  I find that we take them for granted and that the time you spend with them is not a quality time, more of an everyday thing.   Not that that is bad.  We just think that we can spend a much better quality time by having the grandkids come spend time with Grandma and Grandpa in various places in this great country.  Also, the oppurtunity the kids would have to come and vacation where we may be.  When you are able to relax and enjoy things it seems to be a much better experience for all.  I know some of my favorite memories are of camping and being different places with my parents and spending just one on one time with the grandparents, no parents involved. 

-- Edited by eagleshea on Friday 20th of November 2009 03:41:27 PM