National Visit Your Relatives Day

You know how the saying goes, you can’t choose your family! 

National Visit Your Relatives Day is a great chance for you to share your life with those who helped raise you, and to ensure that they’re getting the support they need.  

Luckily, many of us carry fond memories of our family through childhood and growing up. There are family vacations, playing with your siblings and probably fighting with them too. Then there are those times when you got a little too competitive at board games.

No doubt, life is busy. We’re constantly on the go trying to juggle family, career, relationships and all those other commitments that take up our precious time. Often, we put the important things on the backburner, meaning to get round to them later. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.

Yet ironically, it’s never been easier to contact our family. Thanks to the huge advances in digital communications, our family is just a call, text or video call away.

Unlike in times gone by, when we would wait weeks or months for a letter in the post, or even a telegram, now you can pick up your smartphone and be looking at your family at the touch of a button. This is invaluable for keeping up with people and maintaining day to day connections. It has certainly made it easier for families to keep in touch from different cities or countries.

As humans, we thrive on physical interaction and so there really is no substitute for face to face interaction. Staying in physical contact with our relatives both near and far is so important to our health and wellbeing. It is also an opportunity to reconnect with each other and celebrate our memories and shared history.

As time goes on, our families grow and expand and we need to take every chance we can to create memories with the newest members of our families too. You don’t want your nieces, nephews, and cousins to only know you as the voice on the end of a phone or a floating head on a webcam.

Visiting your relatives also allows you to experience one of the truly great benefits of family, unconditional love and support. Plus, there might be some old Monopoly scores to settle.

National Visit Your Relatives Day is the perfect opportunity for you to catch up with your family, maintaining those unique connections and building new ones.

If we’re feeling lonely, most of us have family that we can turn to when we’re in need and we would gladly be there for them.

Life is too short to neglect such an important thing. As the writer, Anthony Brandt put it “other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.”

History Of National Visit Your Relatives Day

Across the world today, and throughout history, there isn’t a culture or religion that doesn’t have traditions or values surrounding family. Now that it is common for people to build their lives all over the world, staying in touch is a way to maintain those close ties with your history and culture.

In times gone by, huge importance was placed on the family. Your family was instrumental in determining what kind of job you would get, who you would marry and other opportunities available to you. Luckily today, that’s no longer the case the most people succeed on their own merits. But the advantages of the love and support we get from our families remains unchanged.

Digital technology has made it easier than ever to stay in touch with those we love.  We can use FaceTime, WhatsApp, email or any number of other ways to share every moment of our lives with them.  

While a phone call or an email are great ways to keep in touch, digital communication can’t fully replace that special, face to face time with those that we love.

Close contact with relatives can even help them through illnesses and extend their lifespans. Social contact can reduce depression and even strengthen our immune systems. Quality time spent with older relatives, engaging with them and ensuring they are well and happy will help ensure that they are with us for years to come.

As the family grows, it is important that they spend time together, to keep the family bonds strong and giving the next generation some great memories on which to build too.

How to celebrate National Visit Your Relatives Day

National Visit Your Relatives Day is as simple as it sounds – go ahead and visit your relatives. If you are lucky enough to live close to your family, then there really is no excuse not to make it happen.

We can often get wrapped up in our own lives and not take the time to do the important things that really benefit ourselves and our families. Some families don’t live near each other with parents, brothers, sisters, and cousins are spread across the country or even the world.

Though it will take a bit more planning, you can incorporate a trip to see relatives with your own road trip or family holiday. Not only will you get to see your family, but you’ll be exploring the world too, making new memories along the way.

If your family is separated by a great distance, why not agree to meet up in a different place each year? One person or family could agree to host or you could all agree on a destination and turn it into a fun trip. The only question is, where will you go?