Monthly Wrap: The best ways to keep in touch with loved ones when living abroad

When moving abroad, often one of the biggest challenges is keeping in touch with loved ones back at home. It can be particularly difficult if you’re used to regular contact from children, grandchildren, friends, parents; anyone.

In the modern age, it’s substantially easier to tackle these moves and remain in contact due to a raft of options both digital and physical. While they can’t replace actual, in person meeting, it can help fill the void.

In this article, we’ll explore a few options on keeping in touch with long distance relatives. Between messaging apps, to classical methods such as postcards, through to viewing parties on streaming services, there’s a surprising range of options.

Messenger apps: convenient and quick

Messenger apps are a great and easy way to keep in touch with far off friends and family. They allow for regular communication between people, regardless of time zone and predominantly operate via Wi-Fi.

As such, they sidestep roaming charges for texts between you and your relatives, provided you all have access to an internet connection.

They also allow the creation of group chats, so you can keep in touch with your entire family easily. A little, informal family chat goes a long way in keeping a sense of closeness with far away relatives, allowing you to send quick updates and have chats and jokes at your convenience.

Letters and postcards: human and physical

Sending a letter or a postcard to relative is one of those practices which will hopefully never go the way of the dodo. The reason these can be so effective is the physicality – while a text is convenient, a postcard is more intimate.

Receiving a handwritten note or sending your own to a loved one is sure to bring a smile. Even if it can take substantially longer.

There’s also the option of sending photos you’ve taken as postcards, a selfie or a specific meaningful location along with a message is a great way to add a personal touch when corresponding with relatives.

Video calls: the closest you can get to being in person

The key factor that elevates a video call above a phone call is being able to see, and read, the face of loved ones. It provides that extra depth to conversation, a warm familiarity and emotional consistency. 

These video calls have also come a long way from the early days of Skype. In a post-pandemic world video conferencing software allows you to do a whole host of activities, including playing party games and watching movies together.

The importance of planning and regular check-ins

Planning is key when maintaining contact with loved ones back home. With planning, you can create events to share with relatives that aren’t behest to geographical boundaries, ones which you can create into routines.

Setting up a weekly online movie ‘night’ or even just regular video calls allows you to keep the connection going despite potentially having the entire world separating you.

The old-fashioned ways still have their place too, adding an extra physicality and an artefact for you to keep hold of. It’s a good way to keep humanising someone you may now see predominantly behind a screen and holds small reminders of the person or people you’ll hopefully see again when you can.

While keeping in touch with far away relatives and friends can be difficult, it’s worthwhile to put the effort in with these methods, ensuring you keep that connection going.

We hope that this article will be beneficial in helping you work out a way to keep in touch with any far-off loved ones. It can be tough living so far apart from family and friends, and any small step you can take to create a new connection will be a boon for you and your relative.