LatinaLista — What happens when the abuelos live in one part of the country and the nietos live in another? Well, it used to mean lots of long-distance phone calls. Then, when webcams were created, it meant precious face-time but the chance to color a picture with the grandchildren or read a book together would still have to wait for those special visits.
Not anymore. One Latina mom decided to take family video-chat to a higher level. Mari Tere Molinet co-founded FamilyClick to help families see, talk and interact with one another as if they were sitting across the same dining room table.
FamilyClick is fully bilingual (Spanish and English) and has an online library of children’s books and videos available for children to read online with other family members. In addition, the site is like a family-friendly Facebook, where personal pictures and family videos can be uploaded to share with invited family members. Also, no one has to worry anymore about receiving uninvited invitations to connect with strangers. And that’s not all.
“A child talking with his grandma can also paint in the same drawing board together while they talk. They can even save the drawing and print it to keep as a souvenir,” says Molinet.
There are free sections on the site but overall it is a paid service based on minutes used rather than ad sales. Striving to keep the site as secure as possible for children and their families, the founders don’t want to accept ads that would compromise the privacy or security of their members.
“Having a fun way to keep a good connection between our kids and our families was very important for us, that´s when we started to develop FamilyClick”, says Molinet
It’s one way to maintain real-time bridges for families living apart.
