Four Wonderful Things You Can Accomplish with Virtual Visitation

Child visitation doesn't always involve a physical visit with your child. Most states give room for virtual visitation, which takes place via electronic medium. Virtual visitation should be viewed as a supplement and not a replacement of physical visitation, but here are some of the wonderful things you can accomplish with virtual visitation:

1. Helping with Homework

If you used to help your kid with homework while you were still married, there is no reason divorce should make you stop. In fact, you can even start helping your child with homework as a way of increasing contact with them. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection, one for your kid and one for you. Using blogs and collaborative websites, you will be able to see exactly what your child is working on at any particular time.

2. Reading a Bedtime Story

Most children love bedtime stories, which have also been shown to hasten their mastery of language. The good news is that you don't need special equipment to read your kid a bedtime story during virtual visitation. As long as both of you have access to phones, you can help your child end their day well by letting them listen to an interesting story in your soothing voice.

3. Seeing Facial Expressions

One of the hallmarks of physical visitation is that you and your child get to see each other's facial expressions, which greatly improves communication. Fortunately, some mediums of virtual visitation allow you to do that. There are mobile applications, such as FaceTime, that you can use to interact with your child. Even if you are using computers for your virtual visitation, all you need are webcams to read each other's expressions.

4. Witnessing Sporting Events

Visitation isn't just about chatting with your kid; most parents want to be immersed in their children's activities as much as possible. This includes witnessing extracurricular activities such as school plays, basketball games, and even piano recitals. If you have the right tools, you can still enjoy those activities from afar. For example, a buddy, paid help, or even your child's other parent can set up a video recorder and stream the event for your benefit.

If you want to include virtual visitation in your child visitation order, talk to a lawyer to help you draft it properly. The draft should cover several essential issues, such as who is to pay for the cost of the equipment and the scheduling of the visitations. While you can make a local arrangement for virtual visitation with the other parent, only a modification approved by the court is legally enforceable. Look for a family law attorney through a firm like Grenadier, Starace, Duffett & Keisler, PC.


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