My Ex Has a Good Idea
Bet you never thought you’d see a headline like that here at Brendan Calling, but it’s true: Sam’s mom had an excellent idea to bridge the geography while Sam is in Canada.
It’s so difficult, for obvious reasons, to parent when Sam is away, but the two worst obstacles are his understandable difficulty carrying on a phone conversation, and my physical absence: he simply doesn’t get much face time with me.
But last night on the phone, Mummy made a great suggestion. “Why don’t we invest in webcams, Brendan?” she asked. “When I was at Penn, I always used a webcam to talk to people online, and since the phone isn’t involved, there shouldn’t be any long distance charges. You and Sam would be able to see each other, and it might make phone conversations easier.”
It IS an excellent idea. After work, I have to figure out if my computer is capable of doing that.
So if you’re reading today, kudos: it’s a great idea, and if we can make it work… well, I still don’t owe you one, but you scored some brownie points with your notoriously dickish ex.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
check skype–it has a video conferencing plug in, and skype to skype calls should be free
many digital photography cameras can be used as a web cam too…I have one you can borrow
as long as the folks on each end have a decent computer, broadband and some tech awareness, it should be easy enough.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Last I checked, Skype was free only until the end of 2006. But there’s loads of alternatives just in case it isn’t.
AOL Instant Messenger
MSN Messenger
Yahoo Messenger
And a whole variety of online forums that allow you to create private rooms and have video conferencing.
Best of all, they’re all free.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
It might also alleviate some of the anxiety he feels when he leaves his mother to stay with you. This could be a real stress reliever. I don’t even know you guys but I’m happy for you and I really hope it works out.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Thanks for the comments!
I’ll be tapping all of you for some help with this one.
It IS a good idea, isn’t it!
October 26th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Alex can definitely help out with this one. Setup for sure – and we might even have some of the hardware in our computer-parts graveyard (and he’s got access to other computer-parts graveyards…)
This weekend he’s busy with Pumpcon – but we can talk about it Saturday.
October 26th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Good news! Congrats to all you guys. It can’t be easy to navigate the mine field of child custody. Anything you can do to reduce the tension and make more happiness is great. good for your ex!
November 9th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
[...] a more cheerful note (ie, having nothing to do with the fascists in Congress), my ex and I finally got our webcams installed, and thanks to the magic of Skype, I’ve had two video conversations with [...]