One other visitation long distance style was to send my kids a card or a care package instead of visitation. I would buy a movie I would watch it and write some comments about the movie, what I liked about it. If the character reminded me of one of the children or something from my childhood I would put the note insode the movie case and include a microwave popcorn in the envelope.
Sometimes I made a point to send an inexpensive greeting card, the 'I miss you' type, if I was unable to do visitation. Sometimes I would send a book. And sometimes I would add my own words or drawings on the books or add in a picture of me or the kids into the story. Recreating memories that we had inside of a new one that they could hold and look at again was kind of a way of "spending time with them". Another time I sent some dollar store aprons and a kids cookbook.
I usually sent a more meaningful care package on holidays. There was a time that I sent a Valentine box. It ended up arriving 3 weeks late. I mistakingly thought it had been intercepted, but it was just s l o w mail. It all ended well when my kids recieved the package on the ONE day they had been locked out of the house after school. There was their package on the porch, with a treat, a card, a toy, and a lot of Valentine Love, and in a way I was with them during that situation.
Visitation in the mail can be quick and easy, a post card, or a letter with interesting stickers, or a meaningful care package. I tried to keep the cost in line with what I would have spent to take them to a movie or dinner, or even just cook a meal for them at home, I also tried to keep the content alongside those goals as well. Even more than what it meant to them, it kept me in parent mode, sharing my life with my kids no matter how far away they were.
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