Is talking to your kids Via (IM) easier?

Is it really less pressure for kids to talk to their parents about "Hard to talk about subjects" online?

Personally I have found the answer to that; Yes. Sometimes kids really "Want" to talk to their parents but are afraid of "The Stare" or the sudden explosion of Mom or Dads head when they ask something completely off the wall.

We started of Basic with the Yahoo IM - Hey, How was School today? Small chat stuff we have no issues with face to face. Then I set up personal emails for them, and we would Email each other like " Hey mom I found this dress on hottopic.com think we can go look at it this weekend?" or "Hey Son Do you think you could Mow the grass on Sat.?" This alone helped our face-to-face conversations go much smoother than the typical "Eek it's MOM run away she won't understand!"

We also used IM's, emails and in game chats to study school work- Hey Son what's 9*9? Or we would yell out words and have them spell them in personal chat back to us. (This really helped our Daughter out in 3rd grade!) That and all the reading of quests in W.O.W really helped and Pronouncing some of their names was interesting!

Then one day came the "Mom can I talk to you for a minute" IM. ME: Sure Honey what's up? KID: I want to talk to you but I'm kind of scared too can we talk like this? ME: Okay, Sure :) Then (Kid) tells me about some personal stuff going on at School and wants advice from me "MOM" Sweet!
Ever since then this kid of mine (unnamed lol) will talk to me about some really personal things face to face and knows I'm not going to freak out- I'm just here to offer advice. Most of the time it's stuff that's really important to them and I'm sitting there bracing for some crazy hard to answer question and it's something simple like "So and So wont be my friend if I'm friends with So and So" lol Doesn't that bring back School memories!?

Both of my kids talk to me about Boyfriends/Girlfriends and crazy things I would never have told my Mom let alone ask her for Advice! (Things change! I call my mom everyday now!) and neither of my kids HAVE Boyfriend/Girlfriends just "crushes".

I am NOT saying, "Don't talk to your kids and avoid face to face conversations with them at all costs!" LOL. What I am saying is if you're a Parent and either You or your kids feel uncomfortable talking face to face give online chat a try, it could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship with your kids! And it could improve their typing skills! :P

Now...What are your thoughts on this?