What Is Virtual Visitation for Parents?

We’re all busy people. It can be hard to visit with your children on a schedule that works for them, for your ex and for you.

Say, for instance, that the children live with your ex after the divorce. You typically visit them on the weekends and sometimes they stay the night at your house. Then your son gets involved in high school football. You work until six every day. He has practice from six to eight. Plus, his games are on Saturdays. He’s typically gone all day, and he just wants to rest on Sundays after the game.

A parent in this situation can feel like they suddenly have no time to see their child. While there are many potential solutions — modifying the agreement, going to the game with your ex, changing your visitation to a weekday, etc — one thing to consider is virtual visitation.

In general, this is just technology-based visitation. It started out as an internet-based process on home computers, using programs like Skype. These days, you can also just use your smartphone and host a video call. With apps like Zoom, you could even “visit” both of your children, even when they’re not together at the house.

Is this all that you want to do? Probably not. But virtual visitation can be a great way to get through busy seasons in life, still feeling like you have time to connect with your kids. It’s also great for parents who travel a lot for work.

What all of this really shows is that visitation and co-parenting can get complicated. You need to make sure you understand your rights and what options you have.