Now a day's open adoption has become very normal. Open adoption means that the parents who adopt the child & the child do maintain relationship openly with the family who gave birth to the adoptee or the child, and the birth-giving parents take active part in the child's life.
If the matter is disclosed to the child & his birth-giving parents do keep in touch with the adopting family via letters, telephone or by visiting them, the child raises a lot of questions about his adoption as he grows up that creates a lot of problem for the adopting parents, changing the relationship between the family.
The aim of opting for an open adoption is sound progress & growth of the child. By this he will be able to have all-important person in his life and solve all matters relating to adoption by him.
If the adoption is not open & no touch has been kept with the birth family, then the family should take the decision about the timing & degree of disclosure to the child. Some points must be considered while taking any decision about disclosure, like the time when the child should know about the birth family, the role that the birth family should play in his life & the consequence of the decision that one side would take to break up.
An open adoption is advantageous for both the family. The mother giving birth to the child would not grieve for having given their son in strange hands & would feel secure to see her child growing up in a healthy environment. It won't be much painful for her if she sees her child grow comfortably in front of her eyes.
The benefit to the adopting family is the growth of sense of responsibility, skills of nurturing a child, better understanding of the background of the infant and the happiness of being parents.
Though it may look an advantageous option to go for an open adoption but it also has certain disadvantages. It would be painful for the mother giving birth to the child if his child is not having proper growth & she would be guilty about her decision about the adopting family. The disadvantages for the adopting family is the regular visits of the birth giving family, transfer of their negativity & a compulsion of supporting the birth giving family. Sometimes the psychological effects of the birth family also affect the environment of the house of the birth giving family.
Few more important topics should be kept in the mind while deciding the matter like the geographical distance of the family, the permanent status of the people staying around or place priority & specially the legal issues should be handled very carefully so that no problem arises in the near future for the child & the adopting families. All points should be viewed carefully and the decision to make an open adoption or closed should be taken before the adoption of the child. It would make this process much simpler & easy going.
