Prison and Parent-Child Relationships: Options for You

When a parent goes to prison, it can affect a child forever. In many situations,
children are left home in a stressful environment or sent to foster homes.
What can a family do if a parent is sent to prison?
It is a difficult thing to
have your family split apart in any situation, but the challenges of prison and
family life are very unique. What do you do if you are the only parent for
your children and you are about to be sentenced to prison?
There are
options, which I will share with you.

Many families have a difficult time relating after a parent is sentenced to
prison. The spouse or other parent is left at home and is now responsible for
the entire house, including the bills and stress of raising the children as a
single parent. This stress can be overwhelming. Some spouses are angry and
often feel that their punishment is even worse than their partner who was sent
to prison. At least in prison you get to have friends and interact with others, but
left home alone you hardly have time to think. Some situations leave kids
scattered between relatives, sleeping on the couch or in sleeping bags.

Keeping your children's relationship strong with the parent that was sent to
prison will be hard. Children will often withdraw from that parent and not be
interested in going to visit them. It is not because they don't love their parent, it
is just because they can feel the tension around the situation and want to do
what they can to avoid feeling that way.

Besides being traumatized by one of their parents going to prison, it is difficult
for children to understand and they often have to deal with it under extreme
conditions at home as well. What happens if the parent going to prison is the
only parent a child has? If a family member is not going to take custody of the
children they will be awarded to the state.

Here is what a number of single parents have chosen to do:

If you are a single parent facing a prison term, you can consider open
adoption as an option. Through adoption, you can choose loving adoptive
parents for your child. You get to decide where they will go and who will parent
them, since you will be unable to. You can keep the children together and still
stay in contact with them. It is traumatic enough for a child to have a parent go
to prison, but being moved from foster home to foster home or separated from
their siblings will make it even worse for the child.

Through open adoption, you can find a family to parent your child in a way that
you would if you were there. You can work with the adoptive family and
discuss what would make you comfortable in making your decision. If you are
going to be in prison for a length of time, it could set your mind at ease
knowing your children had a stable loving home to be raised in. Counselors
can help explain adoption to you and your children when you are ready. There
is no cost to you to go through an adoption plan.
All the legal work is paid for by the adoptive parents and the choices are up to
you if you decide before you check in for your term. There are a number of
waiting families of all ethnic backgrounds and faiths to select from.

You can make a good choice as to your child's future with Lifetime
Adoption's help.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Mardie Caldwell, C.O.A.P. is the founder of Lifetime Adoption. She is an award-winning author of Adopting Online and Adoption: Your Step-by-Step Guide and radio talk show host of Let's Talk Adoption…with Mardie Caldwell.

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