Why do some people live far from their parents?

My parents were always on the move. After Dad retired, he moved to the Palm Springs area, so it wasn't a case of the kids moving away from the parents, it was the parents moving away from the kids. Luckily for them, my husband and I also moved to the Palm Springs area (leaving my kids and grandkids behind), planning on spending 6 months in the south and 6 months up north. Didn't work out that way. Now I take care of my Mom and wish I had time for my grandkids.

Hopefully we live in places where we can find our bliss, work and be happy.
As parents, we do our best to provide an education and social awareness to & for our kids so that they too can find places where they can find their bliss, work and be happy. If it's the same city, terrific but if it is another state or county, terrific. They should not be expected to live where the parents are or care for them.

Life happens. You go off to college, find a good job in another state or country --- your parents are still young and they're proud to see you getting on in life. Then they get old, but you're still living across the country from them and that's where your kids are, your friends, your job, your home, your yard. It creeps up on them and on you. So what do you do? Resign from your job? Sell your house? Leave your kids and friends behind to go to your parents' town? And then the years pass and your kids need to ask themselves, why they live so far from their parents? And the answer is: our life is here, not there. Families don't stay in one place.