One of the primary goals of distanceparent.org is to provide long distance parenting resources to parents. Long distance parenting is a different tool-set, altogether. It’s a layer of logistics and hoop jumping on top of basic parenting. Your ability to be a great long distance parent sometimes depends upon the strength of your plan. The systems you put into place will support you as you grow your relationship with your child.
Emotional Resources
Making the decision to be a long distance parent is a tough place to be. Very often, the answer is actually the process of coming to terms with the emotional aspect of it, and the juxtaposition of the practical facts in the situation. The single most helpful thing a person making this decision can do is to find support of others who have faced this decision who can offer support without judgement. Reading about and responding to the experiences of other long distance parents who have made the decision can help and I recommend going a step further and posting in the long distance parents facebook group.
Once you’ve made the decision, there is now another layer of emotional skills. If you are new to long distance parenting, check out Triage for New Long Distance Parents. Experienced and new long distance parents alike may be surprised to find that there is a large community of long distance parents.
Practical Resources
The long distance parenting toolkit will get you started with organizing the basic practical parts of long distance parenting. This is the very basic jumping off place for starting to build your practical support structures for long distance parenting.
Another thing you have probably considered is stuff you can do with your kids long distance. Check outIdeas for things to do for and with your kids to keep the connection with your kids going strong.
If buttoning up your court order or custody case is still on your list, Legal Case Resources includes state and federal law, case strategy and sample long distance parenting plan.
And finally, there are many How-Tos on a variety of long distance parenting topics as well as some ideas for using online tools for long distance parenting.
Photo : holding hands / Max Pixel ‘¯/ CC 0
I need to find an actual class on long-distance parenting. Do you offer anything like that or know of an agency that does? I live in Arizona and would prefer a face-to-face class but an online class will suffice. Any assistance you can offer is greatly appreciated.
I don’t know of anything – but if you find something, I’d love to hear about it!
Great post, thank you! I need this!