Contributor: Jen Bewes (www.twitter.com/jbewes) from Sydney, Australia.

The hardest part about being a Brit family living in Australia, is the distance between our kids and their grandparents. Standard phone calls never really cut it and you begin to feel the kids becoming more distant and their grandparents more saddened.

That was until we turned to digital to help out.

Now, instead of having to demand Miss 9 & Mr. 7 make an effort to call their grandparents each week, they’re up and talking / interacting before we’ve even stepped out of bed. Yep, thanks to digital, we now have virtual babysitters.

Here’s how it works…

Every Saturday morning, Miss 9 goes down to the office and Skype videos her Nana, before they both go onto Club Penguin or do Miss 9’s Mathletics homework together. At the same time, Mr. 7 goes to the lounge, puts on his Xbox 360 headset, connects to Xbox live and plays a co-op game of Horde with his granddad and cousin [from another house in the UK] whilst talking their tactics through with each other.

Not only are their relationships growing stronger, we get an undisturbed lie-in… and don’t even have to worry about the cost of the 3 hour call/game.

:happy sigh: oh digital world, you are so utterly fabulous.

Thanks for your Connection Story, Jen!