Living away from home? Torn between your obligations to your own family – wife and kids, and the family you have left behind – mum and dad? You chose to live in a different location, country, continent. So that’s the price you have to pay: living with endless, consistent, torturous G U I L T.

You can always go back, some would say, and some people do. It’s the constant comparison between life H E R E versus life T H E R E, and even after quite so many years, you know you have made the right decision, because there is no doubt that where you have chosen to live is the best place to raise your children, and the best quality of life you could have ever wished for yourself and your own family. That’s why you made the move. That’s why you did not move back, although you had the chance.

It’s hard, and it’s not getting any better, as our parents grow old and get ill, as we age and the long expensive flights become harder and harder, physically and financially. You try to settle in with the new life you have set up for yourself, but every time something happens back home, you need to drop everything and jump on a plane half way across the globe. Why do we do it? Why do we feel like we have to? It’s the moral obligation to our parents that forces us to do the right thing. Our parents gave us Life, and they gave us everything we needed to become who we are. Now we need to give back, we must.

Family comes First.

Can I bring the rest of my family over? I wish I could, but it’s not up to me to make that decision for them. Can I go back? I could, but it’s up to me to make the right decision, for myself, for my kids, for my own family. Remind yourself that you are paying the price of living remotely. Embrace yourself for trying to do the right thing. Your kids are watching and you can only hope that they will do the same for you when the time comes. And the time will come…