Managing contact with parents and other family members.

Information reviewed September 2026. Program rules and services can change, so use the linked official source for current requirements.

Contact can support identity and relationships, but it can also be emotionally hard

Children in kinship care may want ongoing relationships with parents, siblings and other family members. Contact can help preserve identity, culture and attachment. It can also create disappointment, anxiety or behavioural changes when adults are unreliable, relationships are unsafe or expectations are unclear.

Prepare the child without making promises

• Explain when and where contact is expected to happen.
• Do not guarantee that the parent will arrive if you cannot know that.
• Give the child permission to have mixed feelings before and after visits.
• Keep routines predictable around the visit, especially bedtime and school.
• Avoid asking the child to report back on adult conversations.

After contact, behaviour may change temporarily

Some children become clingy, angry, withdrawn, tired or unsettled before or after contact. That does not automatically mean the visit was harmful or that it was successful. Look for patterns over time and share significant concerns with the professionals responsible for the child's plan.

When a parent is unreliable

Repeated cancellations and late arrivals can be painful for children. Where you have discretion, build arrangements that reduce uncertainty. In formal placements, raise repeated problems with the worker, lawyer or court process rather than creating new rules on your own.

PEI supervised parenting time and exchange

PEI's Supervised Parenting Time and Exchange Program provides child-focused supervised parenting time and supervised exchanges in qualifying cases. Referrals can come through the Family Court Conciliation Office, Family Law Navigator Program, Victim Services, a court order, an Emergency Protection Order or the Office of the Children's Lawyer. There is no cost to families accepted into the program.

PEI Supervised Parenting Time and Exchange Program

Contact includes more than face-to-face visits

Depending on the situation, children may connect through phone calls, video calls, messages, photographs, letters or contact with siblings and extended family. Social media and online gaming can also become forms of contact, so caregivers may need age-appropriate boundaries around devices and privacy.

Keep the child out of adult conflict

• Do not ask the child to choose between the caregiver and parent.
• Avoid criticizing the parent in front of the child.
• Do not send legal or financial messages through the child.
• Keep pickup and drop-off conflict away from the child where possible.
• Document serious problems factually rather than arguing through text messages.

Keep contact planning grounded in PEI rules and the child's needs

Start with the court order, Child Protection or GACP plan, or family agreement that actually applies in PEI. Then make the practical plan child-focused: prepare the child, keep schedules predictable, reduce adult conflict and review what happens before and after contact.

Parent boundaries · Preserving family connections

When substance use affects parent contact

Contact can carry extra uncertainty when a parent is in treatment, intoxicated, missing visits or returning to substance use. Use the recovery and boundaries guide and relational-safety guide to keep the child out of the monitoring role.