How often do you go home?

[Grimmy]

I've been living in the UK for a little over 2 years. I've been back home once, last April. It's been over a year since I've seen my family and I'm so homesick it's crazy. We are in the process of buying a flat which is why we haven't been back yet, which means we have to wait until that's all gone through before we can go. So it's for a good reason, but it still sucks.

So how often to you guys make it back to visit friends/family?

[jennybee1018]

Hi!! Yay for IN posts....this board needs to liven it up :-)

It's actually been 2 years since I've been back to the US. Partially because it's a long flight and it's expensive, but also just because there are other places I'd rather see when I have vacation time! My husband is a professor so he can't travel during the semester, and I work in Finance, so I can't travel until later in the summer (After fiscal year end). So that complicates things! We try to make it home for weddings and babies when we can.

It's typically once a year, but somehow it just didn't happen that we went home last year, so it's become 2 years.

Good luck with the flat!

[mrsukyankee]

Every two years on average though a few times it was every year due to weddings and the like. Like Jenny, I work in education so travelling back to the States over holidays is mighty expensive and with owning a house/putting money into it plus other things, we just don't want to spend so much on going home. Luckily, my parents do try to come over every 2 yrs as well, so we see them typically once a year.

[Deleted]

We were going once a year but the flights are covered by my husband's employer. If we were going on our own dime it would be every two years. It's pretty exhausting going home with three young kids and a lot of family to see . We get back from our two weeks and need a real vacation to recover.

I love it when people visit. Feels like I get home but without the travel.

[rupertpenny]

I've been abroad about a year and have gone home once. It was so exhausting though, I'm not in a hurry to do it again.

I would like to try to see family once a year though, even if it doesn't involve "going home." My in laws are coming here in November and I'm going to Iceland to see my family there (sisters, grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins) in September so that will count for me this year. Maybe we will go back to the U.S. Sometime next year.

[potatopie]

Once or even twice a year, but that's not sustainable.. we're going back to the US for a year and if/when we do come back to South Africa, we'll travel less. Especially since we'd have to buy 3 tickets.

[frlcb]

When we lived in the UK it was often, like 4 times a year maybe? Now we do the UK once a year, sometimes twice. But my in laws are here 2-3 times a year from the UK as well,

[fbf2006]

We have family both in the US and Nigeria. We've only been here since August and are going to VA and NY this August for my sister's wedding. I'm not really sure what the frequency of our visits is going to be. It'll probably just depend on what's going on, if my siblings in the US or parents in Nigeria come visit us in any specific year. We were in Nigeria last May/June. My husband has been back to both places for work.

[pittpurple]

We aim for once a year but we don't see everyone each visit as our immediate family is spread out between 5 states (pa, Florida, Kansas, New Mexico, Missouri) and most of my cousins are in New York so it's a mess. My inlaws come out a few times a year and each of my parents once but my brother and my DHs sister come out every 2-3 years. It's not ideal at all but we FaceTime a lot.

[origami]

This first year abroad we went home 2x. We won't be doing that again though so it'll be 1x this year. Hopefully 1x/year in the future. The flights are super expensive (esp x4 people) and long and the time change is terrible. AND my ILs want us to fly to see them too (not just go to our US home which is near my parents), so going to the U.S. is way too exhausting and expensive.

[Shreddingbetty]

Since we have DD we go back once a year and my sister visits us once a year. Prior to that DH and I would go every other year. During my first marriage I only went home once but that had a lot to do with the fact my mom had disowned me and didn't talk to me for 8 years. I don't regret not ever going back ther with my ex. The one time I went I went by myself.

[dorothyinAus]

We try to make it so I have a bit of time in the US every calendar year, but that means sometimes it's actually longer than a year between my visits.  So I was in the US in January 2011, but didn't go back until December 2012.  Then I was there in October/November 2013, but didn't get back until December 2014.  And after my visit this January, I won't go back until next summer -- June/July 2016 for my high school reunion.

DH joins me as often as he can, depending on his schedule.

[loira]

I've been back to Canada twice in the past 5 years, and also once to the ILs in the US. It's much cheaper for us to holiday in Europe.

[GilliC]

I probably average a visit to my parents' town once per calendar year. That's driven mostly by my grandmother's age and my mother's guilt trips. I'm okay with a two-year gap.

[Grimmy]

Once per calendar year, that's a good way to think of it. I moved here in March 2013 so I was in the US Jan/Feb 2013. We visited in April 2014. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I visit in 2015.....

I've only had one visitor since living here. My family don't have a ton of money so it'll be difficult for them.

[UnderProtest]

The kids and I are averaging about once a year. My husband has been back to the US a couple times for work (because he is still a US employee and has to go back for trainings and conferences). I think we will be going again this fall, but since it isn't fun to travel with the kids, we will go for quite awhile. We have gone (and will go) on other vacations in the interim.

[azure]

In Vietnam I used to go back once a year.
In France I would go back once or twice a year.
Now I've been back in Canada for 7 months and will be moving back to France in a month, in the future, I plan to use my vacation time to travel to other places instead of going back to Canada so often.

[Grimmy]

If my family could afford to come see me, I'd use some of my travel time/money visiting other places. But since they can't, the only way for me to see them is to go there. And that's so expensive! We will probably be able to afford small trips over Europe in the future, I'm looking forward to that!

[lolo]

When we lived overseas, we went home 2-3x/year. Part of the reason was that we had a lot of weddings.

[Shreddingbetty]

Jun 8, 2015 13:40:07 GMT -5 azure said:

In Vietnam I used to go back once a year.
In France I would go back once or twice a year.
Now I've been back in Canada for 7 months and will be moving back to France in a month, in the future, I plan to use my vacation time to travel to other places instead of going back to Canada so often.

You're moving back again?

[azure]

Jun 8, 2015 20:32:42 GMT -5 Shreddingbetty said:

Jun 8, 2015 13:40:07 GMT -5 azure said:

In Vietnam I used to go back once a year.
In France I would go back once or twice a year.
Now I've been back in Canada for 7 months and will be moving back to France in a month, in the future, I plan to use my vacation time to travel to other places instead of going back to Canada so often.

You're moving back again?

Yes! H is already back and our container is arriving this week.

[Shreddingbetty]

Jun 8, 2015 21:23:42 GMT -5 azure said:

Jun 8, 2015 20:32:42 GMT -5 Shreddingbetty said:

You're moving back again?

Yes! H is already back and our container is arriving this week.

Oh wow! That was a quick turn around . Good luck with the move back!

[azure]

Jun 8, 2015 22:40:19 GMT -5 Shreddingbetty said:

Jun 8, 2015 21:23:42 GMT -5 azure said:

Yes! H is already back and our container is arriving this week.

Oh wow! That was a quick turn around . Good luck with the move back!

Thanks!
Yeah, we don't waste our time!