we first did the move away 7 years ago. moving 1300 km from dh's family. (brisbane to airlie beach)
he just told him straight out in person that he took a job and started in 2 weeks.
they adjusted. we have since moved a number of times mostly recently from, coffs harbour to sydney 3 weeks ago and this move was the worst for dh's parents.
i think they liked we were only a 5 hr drive (although they never visited) but now that we are a 1 hr plane trip they havent spoken to us since we told them 5 weeks ago!
(go figure~!)