When my son is here with me, there are a bunch of shows on hulu that we like to watch together. He snuggles up to me (don’t tell him I told you that) and we get into the show together. He anticipates what shows will be on when and we don’t watch the ones we both like until we can watch them together.

Yesterday, during internet visitation, I suggested we watch one of our shows together. In retrospect, I’m not sure why I never thought of that before. We picked out a show and synchronized pushing play. After each commercial break, because commercials are kind of random and we had different commercials, we’d pause until we were both ready to push play again.

We could laugh at the same times, he could ask questions, we could comment on what was happening. It was almost.. ALMOST like we were right there together again.

In the beginning of my long distance parenting arrangement, my son’s father and I agreed to split air fare in half with his half not to exceed a certain amount. This went into our long distance parenting plan.

However, if that’s not possible, in California, travel cost associated with the children becomes a credit in the child support calculation. In our case, since we split the travel, it’s a wash but if you can’t split the cost of travel, check with your state on how that can factor into child support.

…sending stuff to them (I love to make cookies for them), webcam visits, phone calls…and them having good quality time when they are with us with lots of hugs and affection will be remembered and cherished…they will keep them warm even when our arms aren’t there to hug them.

– Deb, a long distance mom

• Send your child a back to school care package with cool pencils, folder, notebooks or even back to school clothes.
• Call your child on the morning of his/her first day of school before school to wish them luck and/or after school to check on how their day went.
• Keep a binder, folder or letter tray for your child’s school information, progress reports etc for that year. At the end of the year, close it up, stash it and start a new one.

As a result of travel costs being higher on that particular weekend, I was unable to visit my daughter on her birthday this year.  I was able to go a few weeks later and bring presents but I wanted to do something extra special for her on that day.  I arranged to have balloons delivered to her school.  I did not tell her in advance about the surprise.  This was such a big hit with her that I’ve already decided to make it a birthday tradition!  

If anyone has creative ideas for celebrating birthdays, holidays, or any other special day, please let us know! 

~Holly