“Technology is making it easier for noncustodial, divorced parents to maintain their bond with their children.

In virtual visitation, computers are outfitted with webcams that allow parents and children to see each other, making a phone call much more personal and much easier for younger children. ”

See the full story at ABC News.

PEORIA - The Illinois Council on Responsible Fatherhood will host a forum on “virtual visitation” from 2 to 5 p.m. Sept. 15 at Baker Hall at Bradley University, 1422 W. Main St., Room B53.

Led by the council’s chairman, Jeffery Leving, the forum will instruct participants on using technology to stay connected with children regardless of physical location or even incarceration. The event is free.

From PJStar.com

When the site was a baby, the bravenet forums worked. Now, not so much. I haven’t been getting notified of new messages - my sincere apologies to anyone that did not get responses. So I’m installing a new forum system today and will hopefully have it up and running fairly quickly.

This will also further another evolving goal of the site - to provide community for parents who are in every aspect of a long distance parenting relationship including moms, dads and possibly a forum for the parents with physical custody of children in a long distance parenting relationship. With the new forums system, we will be able to maintain these communities separately in order to be respectful of the unique position of each as well as offering a place for the communities to mingle where desired.

Update : The forums are up and running! I have copied over links from the old forums to the new forums so there is a continuation of discussion. Post away!

Join me over at the virtual visitation email list to discuss virtual visitation, how to use it, and legalities surrounding it!

Click to join VirtualVisitation

I’m tackling my next big site project - Long Distance Moms hub and Long Distance Dads hub.

In my interaction with the long distance moms and dads groups - and via email from the site, I’ve noticed that the issues that long distance moms and dads deal with are pretty different when it comes to what society expects and what we expect of society, which is a big part of the inner conflict involved.

I think we all remember that time right before we found out there was another parent out there experiencing the same thing. Those days and weeks (maybe months or years) where we felt REALLY alone. I want to create some content that is for long distance moms and dads who happen to come in looking for support. While I can write a lot about that from a mom’s perspective, I can’t so much from a dad’s perspective.

For that reason, I am creating a long distance dads hub and a long distance moms hub which will be sub sections of distanceparent.org. Hopefully, moms and dads will be able to find a whole lot of information and support from fellow moms and dads on those pages that will help them feel like someone else can relate to them.

To that end, I’m looking for moms or dads who would be interested in writing an essay for the site that would be highlighted on a long distance dad or mom specific page. The essay could be anything about being a long distance mom or dad that you feel is relevant or important. You would be given full credit - either using your real name or not.

It can be anything that you think a long distance dad or mom who is looking for support would find interesting. A one time essay is fine… or if you have lots to say, maybe you would be interested in doing more frequent guest posting on the topic. It can be a paragraph or ten. It can be a poem. It can be a story. Anything that you would connect with as a parent looking for support and common ground with someone going through something similar is great.