my 18 year old son lives in another country. He's finishing up high school and he has a lot of things that go on in his personal life. It can be really hard to stay in touch. He rarely answers email I send him. Nor FaceBook messages. And it's hard to get him on skype. He does have a mobile, and he will answer it. But often I feel like I'm prying by asking him how things are and what's up...

My 18 year old son lives in another country. He's finishing up high school and he has a lot of things that go on in his personal life. It can be really hard to stay in touch. He rarely answers email I send him. Nor FaceBook messages. And it's hard to get him on skype. He does have a mobile, and he will answer it. But often I feel like I'm prying by asking him how things are and what's up...

I realized my first formulation of this sounded like I was asking for concrete suggestions about what to do, and after getting a few answers I realize I'm looking more for other dads and sons to share their own experiences with what they lived through.