How Affluence Pulls People Away From Their Families
My kids love my mom, but they haven’t spent much time with her—at least not in person. They videochat with Gramma about once a week. We Zoomed into her 65th birthday party in March, and the girls held the pictures they’d colored for her up to the camera. But they’ve never actually been to her house. I can count on one hand the number of times she’s babysat either of my kids. (It’s one time.) That isn’t my mom’s fault; I just haven’t lived within a day’s drive of her for nearly a decade.
My husband is in the same boat, and many of our friends, too, live states or even countries away from their parents. So I was surprised to learn that straying from family is unusual in the U.S.: Roughly three. Only about 7 percent have their nearest such relative 500 or more miles away.
