When Their Parent Is Still in the Picture: Boundaries, Ambiguous Loss & Birth Parent Dynamics in Kinship Care
Kinship Care • Family Boundaries • Big Feelings When Their Parent Is Still in the Picture: Boundaries, Ambiguous Loss & Birth-Parent Dynamics in Kinship Care Loving your adult child and protecting the child in your care can exist at the same time. This guide gives grandparents and other kinship caregivers practical ways to handle difficult contact, confusing grief, visits, guilt, loyalty conflicts, and boundaries without turning every conversation into a battle. When you become the person raising a relative's child, family roles change overnight. You may still be Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie, Uncle, sister, or brother to the child's parent. At the same time, you have become the person responsible for bedtime, school, meals, medical care, emotional safety, rules, and what happens when something goes wrong. Those roles do not always fit neatly together. You might love the child's parent deeply and still know that conta...