Open Adoption: What If Birth Grandma Wants Contact but Birth Mom Doesn’t? - Weekend Wisdom
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
09/19/26
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What should you do when a birth mother doesn’t want contact in open adoption, but other birth family members still want a relationship with your child? In this Weekend Wisdom episode, we answer one adoptive parent’s question about how to support a child who wants to see his birth mother while continuing a meaningful relationship with his birth grandmother. We discuss how to talk honestly with your child without blaming or making promises, prepare for visits with birth family, make space for sadness and disappointment, keep relationships separate rather than treating one as a substitute for another, and leave the door open for future contact if and when the birth mother is ready.
Resources:
- Birth Parent Experiences in Adoption
- Open Adoption: Handling Difficult Birth Parent Situations
- Understanding Adoption: Voices From All Sides
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
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How can parents support transracial adoption identity and belonging as children grow and begin defining who they are for themselves? In this panel conversation, three young adults with lived experience in adoption and foster care share how family, race, culture, community, trauma, and relationships shaped their developing identities and sense of belonging. They discuss the difference between having a placement and truly feeling wanted, what it means to be fully known by the people who love you, how parents can respond to bias and difficult conversations, and why families adopting across racial or cultural lines must be willing to listen, learn, and be changed by the child they welcome into their family.
Resources:
- Kirti Pickard and Mission 143: https://mission143.net/
- Tyron “Qpidluv” Smith: https://forever-safe-home.vercel.app/
- Mayia Warren: https://mayiawarren.org/
- Raising a Transracial or Multicultural Child
- Parenting Adopted Teens and Young Adults
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
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With so many trauma-informed parenting approaches available, how do foster, adoptive, and kinship parents know which strategies will actually fit their child and family? In this episode, childhood trauma consultant Beth Tyson helps parents cut through the overwhelm and understand what to look for in a trauma-responsive parenting model. We explore why safety, trust, attachment, and connection should be at the foundation; how trauma can affect a child’s behavior, developmental age, sensory needs, and relationships; and why caregiver self-awareness matters just as much as understanding the child. You’ll also learn how to evaluate claims such as “evidence-based” and “brain-based,” recognize red flags in parenting programs, and decide when to adapt, combine, or move on from an approach that isn’t working.
Resources:
- Helping Children Heal from Trauma
- Parenting Children With Challenging Behavior
- Therapy Resources for Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Families
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
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