Sorry, Mandy - I know it's hard for the kids. But even in your case, your parents must have met somewhere - either while one of them (or both) were on holiday, or working away from "home", or perhaps in another situation that I can't imagine at the moment. I suppose I'm just one of those people who are totally unromantic about family; if one of them decides to live away from the rest, well, that's tough luck, life goes on.Millymollymandy wrote: It was nothing to do with jobs or asylum seeking or guns held against heads. You shouldn't try to assume.
My niece has married an Indian. They (and their three sons) live in India at the moment, but I know they plan on returning to Germany in a few years' time. I think what they are doing is wrong (they are missionaries - which might open another can of worms here!). They've been all over the world, often "in the name of the Lord", and all the time doing their bit to destroy the environment. I think it's wrong. I don't think it's wrong that they are married - but they should make up their mind which country to live in, and then stay put for the best part of the time. If they don't want that, well, then their love obviously isn't strong enough.
Like Martin, I'm more and more convinced that we simply can't afford anymore to have the best of both worlds - or enjoy popping backwards and forwards between two countries.
And to illustrate that I'm not perfect, either - yes, I did travel to my father's funeral by air. Although he wouldn't have known about it - I suppose that I still cared too much about "what the others would think" if I didn't do it, and I know that his partner was glad I was there, too. I think I probably wouldn't have done it if I'd lived further away; my sister, for example (the one in South Africa), went neither to my mother's nor my father's funeral. I thought that was perfectly ok; I know other members of the family and neighbours didn't. (Mind you, my sister didn't stay away for environmental reasons...)
Enough said - don't want to get too bogged down. In the end, everybody must decide for themselves where their priorities are. And, if airtravel had to be paid for according to the real cost, a lot of unnecessary trips would be cut out - stag nights in Spain, for example...
