It can be hard to find a child custody schedule that works for both you and your ex. You may find yourself in a situation where you want to have a visitation with your child, but there’s just no way for you to be physically present. This can be frustrating if visitation would work better at a different time for you, but your ex isn’t willing to budge.
One option may be to turn to virtual visitation. You can do this on the computer, usually by connecting through a video calling service. It still gives you a chance to talk to your child, and the video feature means that the two of you get to see each other and interact much like you would in real life. It’s a way for you to still be involved even when you’re far away or when your schedules don’t quite line up.
This can be helpful, but it may not be all you need
One thing to keep in mind with virtual visitation is that it is generally used supplementally.
People who also have custody rights or who exercise in-person visitation rights will also use virtual visitation when they’re away. It is not common nor preferential for someone to only be given the right to see their child virtually. There may be times when this is the only option, but the court is generally not going to rule that all you get is virtual visitation and nothing else. At the very least, they would typically tell you that you could have supervised visitation if they thought there was some sort of safety issue.
As you can see, even something as simple as visitation can be far more complex than you may have assumed, and that’s why it’s important to understand all of your legal rights as a parent.