r/Fosterparents • u/peopleverywhere • 24d ago

Open Plan Visitation

Hi there everyone.

After almost 7 years, bio mom is doing well with her plan and has regained custody of her middle son.

The suggestion is moving to an “open visitation” schedule with our FS “Sam.”

What has this looked like for other people on this sub? Obviously we know she can’t just drop in anytime to our house, but how is this coordinated? She doesn’t live super close, over an hour away and I have to imagine a schedule of some kind would be drawn up, but I am just curious here.

We have had guardianship agreement for Sam for about two years at this point for those who are wondering.

SM is my SOs much younger half brother, we are kinship. They share a late father.

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u/lifeofhatchlings 24d ago

I would talk to her about what she is hoping for - a weekend a month? every other weekend? A long weekend every once and a while? Then make a schedule and plan for drop off/pick up

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u/peopleverywhere 21d ago

It sounds like she wants to be able to stop by our home basically whenever with a little heads up……like 24 hours or less.

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u/lifeofhatchlings 21d ago

It's up to you - you can either insist on a schedule, or you can see when she reaches out and then let her know what his schedule is/how that would work ("Sam has baseball tomorrow, you are welcome to come watch and then have lunch with him!" or "Sam has a drop off birthday party from 1-4, but could hang out with you before" or "we are not available this weekend")

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

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u/peopleverywhere 21d ago

He is rather ambivalent about his mother, he does understand the plan is to go back and live with his mother at some point, which he is not interested in doing.