Obviously plenty are far, but I'd guess a whole lot of Americans, maybe a majority, live in the same metro area where they grew up. Then I need to factor the Megalopolis, smaller moves, and immigrants into my thinking... I'll say 100 miles.
25
Wait, does this include children?
Children are not included.
All papers from the underlying dataset:
http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/index.php?p=bibstat
I'm really hoping 6 is not a response to 5.
I'm the median American, so the answer is 960 miles.
Is this also going to be on the test?
Can we get some lifecourse analysis on this?
(or whatever it's called)
Maybe I just missed it in skimming, but since the dataset seems to be about people over 50, does that mean the parents and children considered are all over 50 or does the analysis include where the under 50 children of over 50 people live?
I say 30, arguing that more than half of Americans either live in the city/area where they grew up, or their parents moved to be near grandkids.
I'm at 1,776 miles: 99 times the median
Are there any of the commetariat that are below the median? I'd assume we're more mobile than most. I think of myself as close to home--same state, close enough to drive on weekends--yet I'm well above median.
From the link:
"(Half of all Americans live [spoiler] miles away from their mothers)".
Umm
22: They couldn't decide if they wanted to put in "more than" or "less than".
I also really like that long tail for the lower deciles. If The 40th and 5th percentiles are identical. So the mode is [redacted] miles, less than a third of the median. Yet if you live any closer to your mom than that you're a freak.
21: I expect that within 5-10 years my parents will be moving to whatever city I am in, but not at the moment. I'd be curious what percentage of people below the median are in that situation, rather than neve having left the city they grew up in.
21: I am -- Mom and I are both in Manhattan. I think Dad's somewhat over the median, but I don't know the mileage offhand, and he's certainly pretty close.
It's pretty fluid, and I bet the NYT's numbers have already shifted since data was collected. lourdes' mom is about to move farther away; my sister lives with my parents but that's about to end and then she'll go overseas in the fall; if she stays in the EU or such permanently, my parents might move closer to us once they flip the project house. I'm agitating for them to at least move closer to a major airport if they move. If everyone in the family moves out of my hometown I'll probably have a small quiet crisis of destierro, and I really can't imagine it yet.
Oh, and my MIL will soon move away from her own mother (same city currently), and my dad recently brought his mother to a nearby elder care facility for what is likely to be her last year. I have to book a flight to say good-bye. I shouldn't keep putting this off.
I live one mile from my mother. But that's after almost fifteen years of being 1500-2000 miles away.
My own parents lived within 15 miles of their respective mothers for their whole lives, excepting for a brief period of separation when they emigrated (both were part of Operation Peter Pan. NB, that Wikipedia article is not the greatest.). For the majority of their lives, they were probably less than 5 miles away, and each of my grandmothers lived with us when I was growing up for many years (for 3-4 years, both were in the house). I expect that is part of the reason 25 feels more normal to me than an imposition.
My mummy's dead, can't get it through my head. Her ashes were sprinkled on a garden, not by me, somewhere in the DFW Metroplex.
Was 950 miles through my twenties. Then I followed her, and a half dozen others, down to Texas. Lived in Austin, short periods in Cal and Fla, but mostly in the Metroplex, ten twenty miles.
25- My in-laws just moved in 0.3 miles away.
A guy I work with lives upstairs in a two-family with his in-laws in the downstairs unit.
21: oops, < half the median from my mother-in-law, half the planet from my parents.
32: I'd like that set-up, with my father downstairs. I haven't convinced him to leave his house (he nearly has it the way he wants it after forty years) despite being very lonely there.
We just moved to the boyfriend's hometown. We now live 23 miles from his mother and 187 miles from my parents. This is the closest I have lived to my parents since college. He finds it pretty surreal after having been gone for 17 years. His mom finds it DELIGHTFUL and is VERY EXCITED he came "home."
I am always wildly wrong at this kind of thing. I have a guess in my head. Let's see.
I figured it would be a small number then adjusted up for 50 because anything less seemed ridiculous.
I live about 2400 miles from my mother. My sister is probably soon moving across the hall from my mother (kind of. From the apartment they spend a few months a year in.) I found nyc to DC to be a congenial parental distance.
I wish my parents were closer. Also Jammies' parents. Unfortunately, my parents repel Jammies' parents.
If your parents and his parents spin around each other, do they generate electricity?
BTW heebie the infant two-bottom-teeth-only smile is the best.
My estimate was too high by a factor of three. I discover that my wife and I are both around 85th percentile (and, in fact, just drove out to her folks' place yesterday). OTOH, my mom lived a quarter mile away from her mom (and only that far because of the length of the driveways) for 25 years.
7.5 miles from my MIL. 3,119 miles from my parents. When your respective parents live on opposite coasts, it's hard to be close to both.
Also no mom, about 1/2 of average distance from Dad.
Nearly 500 miles, but my siblings live much closer to her, the median or less.
I may be the only person here way under the median. About 1.5 miles.
I may not have read comments very carefully. Glad to know that Ogged and I are the ultimate momma's boys.
1800+. Don't let my mom see this article.
Six miles away for me. Two siblings live about nine miles away. Two other siblings live about 3,000 miles away, in different directions.
If one is an astronaut in geosynchronous orbit, the other is living a Jules Vern novel.
Six blocks from my in-laws, maybe 6 miles from my father, ferry+bridge+half hour drive from my mother. Muuuuuch closer to everyone then I would have guessed growing up (great-grands were up and down the other coast).
I live 2600 miles from my mom as the crow flies. Actual flying distance is a bit longer because there are no direct flights, and driving distance would be much longer. (On the other hand, right now we're in the same hotel room, on our way to visit other family for Christmas.)
I lived about 330 miles from my mother (now deceased). A good day's drive (about 7.5 hours).
When my parents (both deceased) were sick, and then dying, I used to drive to Ottawa and back in a weekend, maybe one or two weekends a month. 7-8 hours there; 7-8 hours back: it was crazy. I had my favourite pit stops: best gas station, fastest fast food, and so on. I was ridiculously, pathetically, excited when a Chipotle opened in Watertown (upstate NY, near the Canadian border). I don't really mind a 7-hour drive, though, and I love driving through upstate New York (but hate hate hate driving through Pennsylvania, which goes on forever and you're hemmed in by eighteen-wheelers).
2,641 miles says Google maps. The current thinking is that when my mom is widowed, she'll move close to my sister, 1,049 miles hence.
I'm the closest I have been this century, roughly 3000 miles.
Something like 70 miles???? Don't know exactly. How ling it takes depends on whether there is racing at the speedway between here and there.
I wish I could sleep but at least I got the rice and dal for Christmas morning dosa soaking.
Google maps says 412 miles for me, for the shortest driven route. Which is about the same distance as it has been for the past 17 years or so. Takes about 6.5-7 hours driving.*
My Mum grew up about 8 miles from where we currently live, though,* so I have my grandfather** and uncle nearby.
* although I've only ever done it as a single stint, without stopping to eat, once. I think I did it in under 6.5.****
** and my Mum and my son were born in the same hospital, almost exactly 60 years apart
*** 102 in March.
**** my Dad, who lives in the same village, once drove a rental van back from Oxford to Stirlingshire in a time where I still don't know how he did it. As in, he left us at 8 (or so) and rang from home just after 2pm to say he was home.
63: have you been miscounting the days again?
I lived about 330 miles from my mother (now deceased). A good day's drive (about 7.5 hours).
Truly, the northeast is a different (driving) country.
That struck me, too. You could knock out 330 miles in about five hours in some of the places out West that we live/have lived in. Closer to four if you pushed it.
Since 18 I have never resided closer than 1500 miles from my parents. Not about them, more about not wanting to be in Texas. If my sibling and I were guaranteed to stick around in the same area, as is currently uncertain, I could imagine them thinking about moving closer to us.
We're not running the air conditioner (yet).
My mother now lives with my sister, about 3.5 hours away. We were going to visit last weekend, but they were both ill then and we'll go next weekend.
She'll be 98 in the spring, with a clear mind and memory and a sharp ear. Last week, when the subject of non-rhotic pronunciations came up here, I saw from the wiki that the Lunenburg accent is the only non-r in Canada, and is also heard in Shelburne County. Since my mother has roots in both, I asked her about it. She promptly recalled her father's impression of an acquaintance: "I hood he had hot trouble" My family = totally rhotic. She recalled the cacophony of Canadian accents, many heard for the first time in Halifax during the war.
The route between Ottawa and Watertown, Hwy 16, NY 37, I81 was an adventure road in my childhood, because we'd go to Watertown for weekend getaways. Even a small city was alive with nightlife downtown in those days. On 81 we'd often encounter convoys of American Soldiers from Camp Drum; draftees, light-heartedly waving from the backs of trucks which always had their headlights on. The drone of tires on the Ogdensburg bridge changed its note on the center span, which freaked my mother out.
You could knock out 330 miles in about five hours in some of the places out West that we live/have lived in. Closer to four if you pushed it.
That's not even pushing it anymore. 80 mph limit isn't uncommon out here in the unpopulated stretches.
When we're driving with the kids, we seem to get about 650 miles in a day of driving. (That's without pushing it - on the road from ~8:30-6:30, long rest stops and usually stopping at a playground once for a real stretch.)
To 74, you know that your country is in the top tier of the league table for "most boring nation" when driving to Watertown, NY for its nightlife seems like a good idea. Canada does what it does the best.
The snow is turning into slush but the snowman is done.
When we were kids my parents would drive us to see my grandparents in FL. NY to Orland in 22 hours or so, with only bathroom breaks.
Although Google now tells me it's only 16 hours. Either way I remember it was overnight.
My sister Lucrezia lives about 120 miles (and three hours' drive) from our mother. The Pope our father would be grieved to know how seldom she drives that far.
Signed, 30 miles and 50 minutes' drive once or twice a week.
I'm about 5 miles from my parents, as is right for this area. They're gone now, though, for Christmas with my grandmother eight hours away.
I don't think there's even a mile between Lee and me, but I am loving this split parenting time where they're with her until late tonight and I can get everything clean and wrapped and ready with no pressure. They'll come back to me in the footie pajamas I bought them to sleep and wake up and unwrap. I'll make a nice breakfast, then Chinese buffet and the stupid Charlie Brown movie at the second-run theater, and I'll do unChristmassy dinner. Should be great, for me at least.
All three of my girls have three moms in a five-mile radius, maybe less. It's funny to look at stats like this and wonder how things will evolve as personal experiences do. The number of us with parents on separate coasts etc. seem like a step on that path.
" three of my girls have three moms in a five-mile radius, maybe less."
Overachievers! 😊
I didn't even think that face thing was allowed or possible.
508 miles from my house to my parent's. That may become 2,115 miles if they ever actually move to their winter home but they haven't yet. 2,775 miles to Cassandane's parent's house.
The downside is that I'm way too sure Selah's mom's ex-girlfriend is going to hit on me when she visits this weekend. And I have to make sure Mara's parents see her separately whereas Nia will talk to some relatives but probably not visit and Selah doesn't realize visiting with the ex doesn't also mean seeing her little sibling, who's still in foster care. (I haven't asked if they'll be asking me to adopt because I don't want them to ask if I will but don't know if I could say no.) Anyway, supposedly I have gifts and cover stories ready to deal with all of this.
Would be 300-odd miles if my mom were alive. Very unlikely she'd have moved here to be near the kids, as neither of my folks lived anywhere near their parents once married.
AB's mom is less than a mile away, and moved here to be near the kids.
65** is pretty awesome.
Meant to add: my kids weren't even born in the same hospital as each other. I guess our doctor changed networks while AB was pregnant with Iris, and we were her last delivery at that hospital.
1800+. Don't let my mom see this article.
Back when Pittsburgh was always hunting for a new slogan, some wag suggested Pittsburgh: The City That Still Lives With Its Mother. Pretty good, I thought.
I'm hearing good things about moving to Philadelphia.
I think only Barry Freed has me beat. According to Google, 6062 miles.
92: Like someone wants to pay you to do it, or Witt has been whispering in your ear?
We haven't discussed moving expenses yet.
I'm just worried that I'm too used to three-figure housing payments and free babysitting.
Stupid bridge construction already ruined my 20 commute by transit.
96: Put your kid to work and solve both problems.
I think they have the same child labor laws as Pittsburgh.
