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"I was thinking back today about the unanswered email that I sent to Peter, and I&amp;#039;d love to tell you that&amp;#039;s an isolated incident. Unfortunately, I&amp;#039;d have to say that probably half the emails I send him get no response and at least half of the few he does respond to get a one or two word reply at best. I don&amp;#039;t reach out to him often, but when I do it&amp;#039;s almost always about the kids. You&amp;#039;d think that would merit a response, but I guess it doesn&amp;#039;t work that way for him. It turns out I&amp;#039;m not alone in this. A recent study by the University of Missouri and published in the journal Family Relations titled: &amp;quot;Communication Technology and Postdivorce Coparenting&amp;quot;, followed forty-nine divorced couples and detailed their use of technology as a co-parenting tool. Not surprisingly, many parents preferred to keep contact via email, especially if their relationship was contentious. The study concluded: &amp;quot;E-mails can be sent without fear of engaging the other parent in unwanted conversation, they leave a record of information shared, and they allow a parent a chance, if they so choose, to edit their comments to be less hostile or more accommodating.&amp;quot; I am in wholehearted agreement - email has made dealing with Peter much, much easier overall. When he actually responds, that is. Some parents did report that they felt their ex-spouse was &amp;quot;hiding&amp;quot; behind the technology, pretending not to receive emails or texts when they were sent. The most common complaint about the shared use of technology was that the other parent was not using the information provided about schedules and events, even when provided in an email, as an attached list, or via shared calendar on the internet. In short, if your ex didn&amp;#039;t bother to read a list or write something down when you told them, they&amp;#039;re probably not going to open that email attachment or update that Google calendar anytime soon, either. What about you? Does technology help you be a better co-parent, or is it a waste of time? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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