How to Keep in Touch With Family

Using Technology

Call your family members on the phone. Schedule a “phone date” with a designated day and time to talk if you have busy schedules. During the call, ask them how everything is going and try not to dominate the conversation by talking about yourself the whole time. Plan your next time to chat before you get off the phone with them. If you know a family member’s schedule, pick a day and time of the week that you’re both free and make an effort to talk on the phone at that time every week. If you’re overseas and worried about racking up long-distance charges calling your family, look into companies that offer cheap long-distance call credits without making you switch service providers.

Video chat with your family members. Use FaceTime or Skype if your family has access to them. Video chatting is the closest you can get to actually being with your family, and your family members will appreciate seeing your face. You can download Skype for free if you or your family doesn’t have it. If both you and one of your family members has an iPhone or Mac computer, you can use FaceTime to video chat with each other.

Send your family members text messages. Texting doesn’t require the scheduling or commitment that phone calls and video chats do. Send your family members the occasional text message asking how they are and what they’ve been up to. Send picture messages of important things happening in your life, like pictures of your new house or your new pet.

Email your family members. Send periodic group emails to your family members so they know how you’re doing. Use email to send large-sized videos and photo albums that are too big to text. If you're traveling abroad or living in a new city, start a newsletter for your family. Include important news from your life in the newsletter and email it to your family members once a week.

Using Social Media

Communicate with your family members through Facebook.Sign them up for Facebook if they don’t have an account already. Check their profiles every so often to see if they’ve uploaded any new photos or posted status updates. Comment on their posts and tag them in things you think they’d find interesting. Download the Facebook app on your cell phone so you can get notifications anytime a member of your family messages you or comments on your profile. Change your Facebook settings so you get updates whenever members of your family make a post.

Snapchat with your family members. With Snapchat, you can easily send videos of yourself at work, home, or out having fun to members of your family. Use Snapchat to check in on the everyday things you’re family is up to that you’d normally miss out on being away from them. Create personalized "stories" on Snapchat that only your family members can see. Upload your photos and videos to your story instead of sending them to each member of your family individually. If you have a question or you need to tell a member of your family something, send a video over Snapchat instead of texting them. A video with your face and voice will be more personal than a typed-out message.

Add your family members on Instagram. Tag them in pictures you upload that you want them to see. Visit their profiles to see if they’ve uploaded any new photos and like and comment on their pictures to let them know you’re keeping up with their lives. Make up a hashtag for your family to use on Instagram. When you upload a photo or video you want your family to see, use the hashtag in the description.

Sending Mail

Send your family members letters. Let them know how you’re doing and ask how they've been. Make an effort to write letters to members of your family that don’t have access to a computer or cell phone. In your letter, ask your family member questions and encourage them to write back. Developing a handwritten correspondence with someone is a great way to bond, and taking the time to write out a letter each week shows that you care.

Mail your family members cards for holidays and birthdays. They’ll appreciate the extra effort you took to send them something in the mail. If you have any prints of photos you want them to have, make copies and put them in the card before you send it out. Make a holiday card where the front is a photo of you with your spouse, kids, pets, etc. You can hire a professional photographer and use fun props to capture a memorable photo to use. Make your holiday card a tradition and send one out every year.

Put together a care package for a family member in need. Send some food to your nephew starting college or package up a few goodies for your brother who just had surgery. You’ll likely get a call from them after they receive their package. Include a traveling scrapbook in the package you send. Put some photos of your life in it and leave the rest of the pages blank. Have your family member add their own photos to the scrapbook and then pass it on to the next family member. Once it's full, you'll have a family scrapbook to look through when you're missing home.

Getting Together In-Person

Plan a weekly dinner with your family. Choose one night of the week to meet every week if you all live near each other. Use the dinner as an opportunity for everyone to come together and share stories and updates about their lives. Try to alternate where the dinner is hosted each week so no one family member feels overburdened. If you do meet for dinner at the same family member's house every week, try a potluck-style get together. One person can make the main course, another can do snacks, and someone else can make dessert.

Throw a family reunion. Plan far in advance so everyone can take off work and make the proper travel arrangements. Choose a location that is the most convenient for the most number of people in your family. If you have a large family, organize a reunion planning committee made up of three or four of your family members. You'll have fun organizing it with them, and it will encourage you to keep in touch.

Make time to grab lunch with a family member. Catch up with them during your lunch break, or try to find time to meet for lunch on the weekend. Make the effort so your family knows you care about staying in touch with them. If your family member is busy and doesn't have time to leave work, offer to pick up some food and eat with them at their office. If neither of you can do lunch, see if you have time to meet for drinks or an appetizer right after work.