After reflecting on the questions and developing my own
responses, I think that they seem to be the right questions being asked of a
prospective parent. I was surprised at
the brevity of the list, and the amount of questions not directly related to
parenting. Some which I found less
relevant were ones like “How do you entertain yourself?.” This seems a bit redundant considering the
questions on hobbies. I also thought it
was interesting that one of the questions asked the prospective parents to
describe their own childhoods. If the
agency considers this heavily, it implies that they believe a person’s
childhood has a significant impact on their parenting style or potential to be
a good parent. Although I can see the
value in this question, I feel it may make a parent seem less adequate if they
had a childhood filled with parental abuse or family conflict. Additionally, the question of “brushes with
the law” is an example of Iris Young’s marginalization face of oppression. People convicted of serious crimes would probably
be discriminated against based on this question of the home study.
If I were to imagine myself as a parent who has faced
infertility for years this home study would make me feel inferior to other
parents who were able to conceive children.
The fact that they are not placed under the same evaluation creates an
odd dynamic between the “privileged” and the less “privileged.” Answering these trivial questions would seem
rather annoying and unnecessary. The home
study process seems to play on the idea of adoptive parents being the most
powerful relative to other parties in the adoption process but ironically
feeling an incredible amount of powerlessness.
While they have quite a bit of financial power, overall they lack the
control over whether they will be deemed adequate to adopt.
I think that no matter what questions would be asked in the
home study, the parents would develop answers to please the social worker and agency. In such a high pressure situation, it is
inevitable there will be some dishonesty and embellishment of the truth. Therefore, there should be more informal
observation done as well. This would increase
the feelings of inadequacy in the prospective parents, but it would be worth
knowing the child was placed in good hands.
Reanna N.
Graded Reply #3
ReplyDeleteGreat Job! I really liked that you tied in other topics we have talked about recently.
I would agree that the adoption home study is asking many of the right questions. As you mentioned, the relevance of some of the questions seems uncertain but I know that adoption agency has reasons for asking each question. As for the how heavily the agency rates the answers, I don’t think the agency would refuse to consider a person as an adoptive parent due to abuse as a child. On the other hand, if the person’s childhood was filled with loving parents and good education, the person is not automatically going to be a great parent. Although questions like this can have varying answers, I believe the adoption agency is trying to get a sense of how the perspective parent grew up and maybe things they would want to be different for their kids.
On another note, I like that you bring up the point of dishonesty. For me if there were a social worker and a home study in the way of me getting the baby I have always wanted, I would probably tell them everything they’d want to hear. I would probably do anything to get the agency to like me as a person and perspective parent. Subconsciously, I would want to tell the truth so that I received a child through honesty and trust but being in such a situation would make complete honest difficult.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the home study. I liked all the points you brought up and the reasons you gave for your thoughts. It was very interesting!
Jen
Graded Reply #2
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your thoughts on the home study assessment, I felt that you explained yourself very well! I agree as to how some of the questions that were asked on childhood experiences or upbringings can make a difference whether you are eligible for adopting or not. Just because you’ve had bad parenting experiences in your life does not mean that you will be the same when you are a parent. I feel that these questions might be a way that social workers can easily “weave” people out of the process. Maybe they have a strong feeling that childhood experiences will influence their parenting skills, therefore if these questions are not answered in a way the agency wants them to be, it could be a red flag and disapprove the parents for that specific reason. We will never know what answers are right or wrong for the agency, but couples hope for the best and have their prayers answered and approved.
I also thought it was interesting how you mentioned the dynamic between the “privileged” and the less “privileged” in your post as well. I believe that many people do not realize the amount of work and effort adoptive parents have to go through in order to receive their child. We don’t have parents who are able to conceive children go through a questionnaire on whether or not they are eligible to keep their children like we do with others. Why is this? It’s clear that whether or not they can conceive children, parents could potentially be excellent parents or abusive, unloving parents as well. That being said, do we treat every couple the same with processes that allow them to adopt or take their children home from the hospital? May be a bit unethical, but I feel that agencies need to begin to take other situations into consideration when deciding whether or not parents are approved for adoption.
Savannah
Reanna, Savannah, et al., I understand your concern that a person's childhood doesn't determine what kind of parent they will be. But I also know that I and my friends often remark on how we find ourselves responding to our kids often the ways that our parents responded to us. I think the years of modelling our parents provided for us are hard to overcome!! Thus, if I were a social worker, I'd want to know if prospective adoptive parents had been abused as children. Not to say that they will then necessarily become abusive as parents themselves, but I would want to know that they had taken some pro-active steps in their lives to think about how to respond to the inevitable family conflict in healthier ways.
ReplyDeleteJean