There is always a safe way to maintain a child’s relationship with a parent they once knew and loved.

There is always a safe way to maintain a child’s relationship with a parent they once knew and loved. If the parent wants to be a parent, and is showing up in some consistent way, then it’s not your choice to sever that bond.

Whether they’re paying support, taking weekends, showing up on FaceTime, or just staying present, that connection matters.

That is the best interest of the child. It’s in the child’s best interest to be able to respect their parents. It’s in the child’s best interest to feel safe calling their parents, safe disagreeing with them, safe being a child, not a weapon. It’s in the child’s best interest to have equal time where possible, to learn who they are through both sides of their family.

To know their siblings.

To have a room with their stuff.

To leave that room knowing they’re coming back.

Always…

I don’t care if the other parent is in jail, as long as it’s not for a crime against the child,

They still matter.

The child still benefits from knowing where they come from.

And no amount of therapy, court orders, or “best interest” buzzwords can replace a biological bond that was never supposed to be broken.

There is always a safe way to maintain a child’s relationship with a parent they once knew and loved and if you truly cared about the “best interest of the child” it wouldn’t take you years to figure it out what that way is.