Virtual visitation, also known as electronic or remote parenting time, has become an increasingly popular co-parenting resource over the past few decades. Virtual visitation allows parents and children to stay connected through video calls, phone calls, emails, texts and other digital communication methods, often because a child regularly transitions between their parents’ two households.
What kinds of virtual visitation arrangements are considered reasonable? The answer to this question generally depends on the family’s unique situation, the child’s age and their personalized needs.
Making it work
Reasonable virtual visitation should support consistent, meaningful contact between a parent and their child (who is residing with their other parent at the time of the contact) without unreasonably disrupting the child’s routine or causing unnecessary stress. Common arrangements include scheduled video calls several times a week, such as short daily check-ins or longer weekend chats. For example, a parent might have a 30-minute FaceTime call every evening before bedtime or a longer Zoom call every Saturday afternoon.
However a family’s needs shake out, a reasonable approach to virtual visitation generally requires the benefit of predictability. A structured schedule can help to prevent misunderstandings, support consistency for the child and minimize the risk of conflict between co-parents.
Flexibility is also important, especially with older children who may have their own activities and responsibilities. Reasonable arrangements should take into account school hours, extracurriculars and social time. The goal is to make virtual contact part of the child’s life—not an intrusion into it.