Will Rising Gas Prices Cause More Stepparent Adoptions?

Many times distance between the custodial parent and the non-custodial parent causes the non-custodial parent to be less involved in their child’s life than they anticipated after the divorce, or birth of their child. When the biological family does not work out as a family unit, there are often hard feelings between the two parents, and it is not uncommon for one parent to move away from the other, in an attempt to make a fresh start, or in some cases to purposely put distance between the non-custodial parent and the child.

Once there is considerable distance between the two parents the financial burden of seeing the child falls on the non-custodial parent. Often times with child support and their own bills to pay, the non-custodial parent is not able to visit the child as often as he or she would like. This is hard on both the child, as well as their non-custodial parent, especially in the case where the non-custodial parent wishes to be involved in the child’s life and would be a positive influence on the child’s life.

With gas prices soaring lately, and with seemingly no lowering in sight, I am left wondering how many non-custodial parents will be pushed out of their child’s lives, simply because they can no longer afford to visit their child(ren). Stepparent adoptions can occur, even when the non-custodial parent contests, if the non-custodial parent has not had contact with the child from six months to a year, depending on the state that the child resides in. And while rising gas prices do not prevent the non-custodial parent from calling the child or sending letters, a dis-heartened parent may find it too painful to call or keep in contact with a child that they cannot afford to see.

Perhaps the rise in gas prices will give some non-custodial parents the out that they have been looking for to cut ties with a child that they are not actively involved with, while on the flip side, perhaps the rise in gas prices will be a factor in pushing other non-custodial parents out of the lives of their children whom they desperately wish to be included in. Any thoughts? I would love to hear someone else’s opinions or thoughts on the subject.

photo credit yotophoto.com

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