As your child has gotten older, one thing you’ve noticed is that they are simply always busy. Their activities take hours to complete, and they don’t always come home after school. Their weekends are full of classes and sports, so you and your ex-spouse have both had some trouble finding time to spend with your child.
Your ex-spouse has seen a significant decline in how often they’re interacting with your child. They had limited parenting time in the past, but with how busy your growing teen has become, visitation has become even more complex. Often, the parent ends up with your child during an event or activity, so they don’t really get one-on-one time together.
What Should You Do? Is There a Way to Stay Connected with Teens in Complex Custody Situations?
One option you may be interested in is virtual visitation, which would allow the other parent to have conversations over video chats, on the phone, through video games, and in other places. This is beneficial if they’ve been missing out on that one-on-one time together because of activities that have kept your child busy. It could also help minimize stress for your teen since they have so much to do.
Virtual visitation should be added to your current schedule, not used as a replacement for the other parent’s time. They still have a right to the time that the court awarded them in accordance with your custody schedule. However, adding an hour of virtual time a few days a week when your child has time at home could be beneficial in giving them more time to build a strong relationship. It may also help your ex-spouse spend time helping your child with homework, play games together, or just have conversations that they otherwise may not have gotten to have.
If you’re interested in adding more visitation time, then your attorney can help you submit that request to the court.