When to start a family?

How important or helpful is it to live near family when you start your own family?

• Where "family" could include your own parents, siblings or other extended relatives, and "near" means in the same area where you can drive to one another without making it a day trip.

• Answer:

  If you are a woman, it will mean a lot to you. First one year after marriage means lots of compromise and whenever you are giving up something you will feel like talking to somebody who knows you better and who will understand how hard it is for you to give it up. Your husband will not know that you are giving up something which is actually very hard, your in-laws will consider that you have got to give it up, but only your mom or dad will feel that it is pain for you and that you are doing a big sacrifice. When you feel like going to your mom's house, having to travel a day/night will make you wait and just phone calls may not be enough for you at times when you are depressed. If you are a man, it is just your call. Mostly in the first couple of years, nobody will visit your home even if you stay in the same place as your relatives, even parents would expect you to go to their place. Only during some occasions there will be chances that they come to your place. But still it is always a pleasure to visit everybody's house whenever you have free time and show your wife how families and culture is in your family. So, according to me, it is always good and given a chance choose to be in the city where you can travel to your parents/siblings/relatives place.