According to Dallas Divorce Lawyer Michelle May O’Neil, a Texas board certified family law specialist, "modern technology provides valuable ways for parents to exercise parenting time or visitation, even over the miles."

The bad news, of course: There are even more ways you're not using to keep in touch as often as you should. O'Neil runs down just how many ways you currently have to avoid keeping in touch:

The telephone. Most kids these days have cell phones. This can be a benefit in staying in touch over a distance because it gives the parent and child the flexibility to make contact directly. The parent does not have to go through the other parent to reach the child, therefore reducing the potential for conflict.

Text messaging. Many teens conduct full relationships over text without ever speaking in person. Why aren't you one of them?

E-mail - still the number one method of communicating over the Internet. In parenting, it allows the child and parent to exchange private conversations. So let's see you send more e-mails, huh?

Instant messaging. Learn to use it. Many instant messaging programs exist that allow people to exchange messages in real time over the Internet without picking up the phone. Yahoo Messenger or Windows Messenger or other similar programs aren't really that hard to figure out, and Facebook's (News - Alert) chat works reasonably well.

Video conferencing. The Internet provides options for free or inexpensive conferencing, including video conferencing.

Facebook. Parents can also stay up on the activities of the child by reading the posts and responding.

Twitter. Subscribe to your child’s posts and read or comment on what is going through his or her mind at the moment.

You Tube. Parents can use this in keeping involved in the child’s life by, for example, posting a video to share with the child of some event going on at the parent’s home while the child is with the other parent.

Flickr. Post photos of events and share with the child.

Whiteboard. Similar to instant messaging in that the communication occurs in real time. But, whiteboarding stands apart in the ability to draw, use shapes, collaborate over images, and use voice chat while doing it. “One client I have bought the same math book the child uses in school and then uses a whiteboard website to help the child understand his homework, even when the parent is across the country,” offers O’Neil. Scriblink.com is a free whiteboard website.