How to set up my elderly parent with Mac so that I can use remote access to help her?

Question

I want to set my elderly mother up with a new Mac mini so that I can use remote access to show her how use email, browse the internet, share photos.  (She lives in KY, I live in OR)
She has had an iPhone and an iPad for about 6 months and she can barely use them without becoming frustrated.   I want to be able to see her screen with her and show her how to do things.
My plan is to set her up with a Mac mini and I'll use my MacBookAir to remote into her system.  I'm buying the mini to configure and then I'll mail it to her.
My question is whether to try to use Back to My Mac or Teamviewer for remote access
I have broadband with comcast and she has broadband with Access Cable.  Each have their company modem/routers--neither of us have Airport Express.
I have my own iCloud account and she has her own.   If I use Back to My Mac, it seems that I would need to set up a separate account on my Mac that would sync to her iCloud account.
Teamviewer seems easier because I don't have to use a separate account.   Any advice?   Anything that I'm not thinking about?

Answer 1

As Linc says, you can establish a Screen Sharing session via iMessage and Facetime.  The advantage of these 2 approaches is that once your Mom gets used to using them, she will be more comfortable using them to communicate with you.  I've talked to my Mom via iChat (aka iMessage) more since she learned to use them, then in all the years before that (including when I was a child ).  And just being able to see your Mom via Facetime can be useful when you want to gage how she is doing.
However, if you are any distance from your Mom, they you want backup methods incase something goes wrong.
So beside iMessage/Facetime, the next best would be Back-to-My-Mac via iCloud, however, you will want to establish her Mac as using your account so that you have the right to take control remotely.
An alternative that does not mix up your iCloud acounts would be to use TeamViewer.com (which has an unattended mode so you can do off-hour maintenance when your Mom is not around; or check up on her to find out if she is dating - Turns out if I had been paying attention, I would not have been blind-sided by my Mom getting Married again last Summer - she is in her 80's! ).
LogMeIn.com, as dwb says, can be used the same was as TeamViewer.com
Both LogMeIn.com and TeamViewer.com are very good at making it easy to get through the home router and if you are having any problems connecting using other Methods, TeamViewer.com or LogMeIn.com will most likely not have any issues.
Back-to-My-Mac allows screen sharing and file sharing so you can transfer files as well as control the screen.
Screen Sharing via Messages allows cooperative file transfer. That is to say, you can try pushing a file to your Mom, but she has to accept each transfer.
TeamViewer.com has an unattended file transfer mode.
LogMeIn.com requires the paid version to transfer files.  However, there are other ways to transfer files, such as downloading them from the original source on your Mom's system while using screen sharing, using Dropbox (or similar), emailing them, etc...
Of course if you are really network savvy, you can roll your own via ssh tunnels, port forwarding routers, getting dynamic DNS names, transferring files via scp, or tunneling AFP file sharing, tunneling your screen sharing sessions.  Lots of fun and excitement playing with terminal commands