There are going to be periods of time for most of us when the stepchild is with the other set of parents. And if this period of time is an extensive amount of time there is no reason why we shouldn't maintain consistent contact while they are away.
Our son chose to stay in Maine with his birth mother this school year after he had been here this summer. During the summer months he had told his counselor that he wanted to move back to Montana, we had made the appropriate motions with the court and our lawyer, and $2,000 later, he changed his mind.
His father and I were deeply hurt, we had looked forward to having more time with him than a week at Christmas, Spring Break, and summers. He had been accepted at a prestigious private middle school here in town to make up for the year that he had spent in Maine. (What they were teaching him in the seventh grade were things he had learned in the fifth grade here in Montana.)
Ultimately, his social life and comfort in already being established in his school won out.
The point of all this is, even though we are 2,500 miles away, there is no reason to not have regular contact with the kiddo. We mainly use the phone, since he hasn't demonstrated responsibility with his tech devices that allow him to access the internet at all hours of the night. But we could if we wanted to, there's access to Skype, (it's free, you should check it out), email, and all those social networking sites. Although our son's accounts have been disabled on those for the time being, they could work for you too.
Our consistent contact? A phone call every Sunday evening.
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