[sueinla]

We currently have two half-brothers (9 & 4) who have been with us about 5 weeks. The younger one is going to live with his paternal grandparents in the next couple of weeks. The boys CW did not want to place with the grandparents because she says the whole family is crazy and several of them have criminal backgrounds. Her supervisor over-ruled her and the CW refused to do the homestudy for the grandparents. The supervisor did the homestudy and we have been told that we will have to do "sibling visits" that will not be supervised by OCS. It will be up to us to schedule and deal with the grandparents. I am thinking that I need to try to get OCS to set some terms for these visits so that we have to deal with these people at a minimum. Have any of you been in a similar situation? If you have done any type of sibling visits in the past, please let me know what arrangements you had. I am afraid of having to deal with these folks based on things the CW has told me about them and would like as much structure to the interactions as possible. Any suggestions are welcomed!

[millie58]

I've done sibling and bio mom visits. I had L, another foster mom had 3 and we would schedule visits with bio mom. We stuck to parks; did some at churches. You may want to have another adult along (if this is possible). This way if anything happens, you have proof. But in my situation, the smaller kids played more. They hugged bio mom but would run and play when given the chance.

[carlychan]

I have supervised our bio-mom's visits and visits with siblings via another foster home (they didn't like me though). I think you will be suprised at how "normal" the grandparents seem. I think sometimes we get something in our heads (or a SW does) and expect the worse. You might ask DCS to supervise the first time and make sure you are comfortable. I don't know if they can "force" you to do visits with strangers or not. If the grandparents are THAT horrible they would not have passed a homestudy.

[mamachell]

I have only had supervised visits with biomom and half-sibs. I would ask them to coordinate at least the first few. We have our visits at the Dept's offices. Can you use their facilities at least if they aren't supervising?

[momma24rn]

We take our fs to visit with his two half brothers every week. They were in a relative placement and recently RU'd with their dad. We do visits at a park. I always take DH or another adult with me. I am careful not to talk too much, because they do pry for info alot about what is going on in our fs's case. It is going well though. The boys are small so most of our attention is focused on them running around which makes it not too awkward.
Good luck