While I see your point about hopeful aparents making empty promises to birth moms, the bottom line remains that once a b/parent signs those relinquishment papers, his/her rights are terminated. Open adoption is NOT co-parenting. Rather, it is both families sharing bits of their lives with one another.
I just don't think it's fair to legally force my pre-teen to talk with his birth mom when, for whatever reason, he doesn't feel like talking with her that day. At the same time, I don't think his b/mom should be expected to drop everything in her busy family life to make a phone call at a specified time.
As for having to go through the court system to protect my child from a visitations by a criminal birth parent, that's absurd! As his legal parent, I, not the courts, should be the one to decide what's best for my child's safety! Getting court dates takes time, and then there's the burden of proof thing, not to mention the costs involved. The way I see it, having to go to court every time an a/parent, adoptee, or b/parent wants to change any part of the open agreement, would needlessly clog up an already overburdened court system, and the only advantage would be to further pad the pocketbooks of the attorneys involved.
Adoption Host
