How do you make a long distance marriage work?

It sounds like you are making it work, just hang on till Junior is out of school. and go to him.

Hope it works out just as well when you are closer.

@sunshine123! Welcome to fluther! It is really hard to make a long-distance relationship work. But you guys are taking the right steps. As an added plus you could get together on skype before the start of the day or during lunch hour.

It can be done. My father transferred for his job when I was a junior or senior in high school and my parents worked it long distance until I graduated. It’s hard and it sucks, but it can be done.

Having said that, they also had over 25 year of solid marriage foundation to begin with. It’s going to be harder with a fresh relationship, but if you both really want it, you can do it. My long distance fiance and I use google chat and webcams to keep in touch. In the evening we regularly just turn them on as a window into each others life. We’ll chat some, but I sometimes read while he cooks. It’s just a way of staying connected.

I know a whole bunch of military families that make it work through letters, email, phone calls, support groups, and getting together whenever they can. Both partners need to be very committed to the relationship and very open to communicating however they can.

I also had a co-worker who lives here in South Texas, while her husband lived in Dallas. He would fly down here every few weeks for doctor’s visits and to see her. Somehow they managed to raise six kids that way and remained married until he died in his early 80’s.

No advice, but encouragement: I think it’s so great that you’re putting your son’s stability first. You must be an excellent parent.

I’ll bet you’re both on the phone every day. I hope you are. But it’s only for a little while longer! Hang in there! Do you both have Skype and a web cam on your computers? Web cams are really cheap and easy to set up, as is Skype. I’m able to talk to my friends in other countries through it.

thank you all for the great ideas…skype is a great idea….. we do talk a lot on the phone 3000+ minutes a month… thanks again!

I second Skype. The obvious is you can talk on the phone for free. But it also has a lot of fun games and features. Tim and I used to paint pictures together while we video-chatted.

Also, take a look at this question for some more ideas. (Ignore the few rude comments).