Staying Connected With Your Kids Post-Separation

As a divorce and family mediator, I was recently asked for a quote on my opinion of Using Skype to Stay Connected With Family. This was for a blog post written by Leema Thomas which appeared in the Monday August 27, 2012 edition of Long Island’s daily newspaper, Newsday.

This request really got me thinking about how much the world of communication has changed, even over the past nine years since I have been mediating. Although I wrote an indictment on the misuse of text messaging in one of my last articles, the truth is that any tool can be used for good or not. When it’s used for good, families in transition and families who are living separated from each other, can truly benefit in many useful and creative ways.

Take Skype, for example. Those of us of a certain age, delighted in the futuristic TV cartoon, The Jetsons back in the early 1960’s, and recall our amazement when daughter Judy “skyped” with her friends. Who knew that fifty years later, it would become a reality! We can see and talk to one another in real time, no matter where we are.

For a parent who travels a lot for business and spends a great deal of time away from the children, skyping is probably the most immediate way to stay in touch. When couples separate and one parent lives at a distance that makes the physical, shared parenting arrangement challenging, skyping can bring that parent closer. Nothing takes the place of spending “real time” but given the realities of our jobs and living arrangements, creativity is the key and these tools can lend a hand in keeping families close.

There was a time when only land lines ruled and it was expensive to make a long distance call. In fact, many people waited until after 9:00 pm when the rates went down to reach out to loved ones. Now, many households don’t even have a land line. Long distance charges?? What’s long distance?

Many people, especially the young, only use their cell phones. And these cell phones have become not only a way of communicating by voice, but they provide us with a camera, a mini-computer, an APPs device, an alarm clock. By the time I complete this article and post it, they will likely do ten more amazing things!

Cell phones, texting, tweeting, skyping – What’s next….holograms? No matter what is next, for both children and their parents, any tool that helps families stay connected, is a good thing.

OK, beam me up, Scottie!

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