What Does it Take to Be an Adoptive Parent?
Our class discussions have been mostly based on the perspectives of the birthparents and the process and emotions they go through in the adoption process when they give up their child. We have yet to observe the adoption process from the perspective of the adoptive family and what they go through administratively and emotionally to adopt a child. Today I spent time filling out a shortened home study report which is suppose “to educate and prepare the adoptive family for adoption, evaluate the fitness of the adoptive family, and gather information about the prospective parent that will help a social worker connect the family with a child whose needs they can meet” (The Adoption Home Study Process). I did not expect some of the questions on the home study and it gave me an insight on what the first steps of the adoption process.
The most important questions on the home study in my opinion were the parent philosophy questions. It is important to examine how a parent with discipline or nurture their children, and hopefully this would get people who are considering adoption to talk about how they would like their child to be raised. Also I think the questions about lifestyle choices, financial stability, and health insurance were all important questions to ask as well. These are important attributes that lets an adoption worker know if these potential parents are ready for a child. However not all the questions I felt were necessary in determining if someone should be able to adopt a child. The questions on religion I thought were intrusive especially in a country that values separation of state and religion. In my opinion the religion that one decides to follow or not to follow should not be a state of evaluation for adoption. Some of the questions were personally intrusive, like examining the relationship with your parents and siblings and some questions were aimed at digging through one’s family history.
It is important to remember in the home study questions it is not only about evaluating the potential adoptive parent(s) but also for the parents to reflect if adoption is the right choice for them. I believe all parents, adoptive parents and parents who give birth to their children, should go though some sort of reflection questionnaire to prepare them for parenthood. Many of these questions revolve on what type of parent one strives to be which I think is important for every potential parent to examine. The home study questions is a significant step the potential adoptive parents most go though, which are intrusive to the people’s past lifestyle, childhood, and current lifestyle today. But these questions hopefully allow people to truly think about parenthood and whether adoption is right for them.
"The Adoption Home Study Process." Child Welfare Information Gateway. US Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. <http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_homstu.cfm>.
Graded Response #3
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post Sarah. I found some of the points you made to be extremely interesting, causing me to think of things I had never considered before. Certainly, I agree with you on the importance of the parenting philosophy questions. Also, I think it is so important that all potential parents (biological or adoptive) go through some sort of similar reflection exercise, in which they discuss ideals that they would have for their own children. You alluded to this as well, stating this type of reflection process would be helpful to all future parents. Something you brought to my attention was the intrusiveness of the questions about religion. When I read through it, it didn't trigger anything in my mind. However, after reading your thoughts on it, I agree that that is somewhat intrusive, and I believe that it would produce a good deal of anxiety, since you would have no idea what the adoption agent is really looking for. As for the questions about family relationships, I wonder if they ask these questions in part to determine if the adoptive parent(s) have a support system in place. Also, I do believe that these relationships do affect a person in profound ones, making them hard to ignore. That being said, a negative answer to these questions should definitely not be an end all, be all. As with anything else, it should just be taken into account.