After
talking so much about birthparents and their oppression and struggles with
adoption, it was interesting to see the other side of adoption and the feelings
that adoptive parents must go through when trying to adopt. The questions that
comprised the adoptive parents questionnaire were extremely personal and many
of the questions were hard for me to answer. It is difficult for many people to
take their life story and put it into a five line word box and on top of it
make it sound like there are deserving of a child. The pressure that comes with
answering these questions is extreme. One wrong word or type of lifestyle could
hinder you from having what you’ve always wanted in life. With this being said,
I feel as though it would take a considerable amount of time and effort to
complete this set of questions. When something that is so important to you
comes down to a set of background information, it would be hard to complete it
unless it was perfect. It would take a strong, confident person to answer these
questions honestly and wholeheartedly.
Many of these questions that were
so difficult to answer, however, are critical to the adoption process. I think
a questionnaire is completely necessary to get a feel for what a person is like
and the reasons for why they are that way. This includes asking questions about
childhood, about their rearing and what their own philosophies about life and
families are. With this being said, I felt like the questionnaire did not do a
sufficient job of getting a feel for the adoptive families as individuals. I
was greatly surprised by the length of the questions and how brief and non
detailed they were. It was almost like writing about your life story with no
guidelines and specific questions to help you along through the process. I also
felt as though many of the questions were biased, like the adoption agency was
looking for a very particular type of person that fit their mold of lifestyle
for which a child could grow up healthy in. It didn’t leave room for things
that were different or unique about the individuals that were looking to adopt. With this being said, I think it would be essential for adoption agencies to invest more time into finding families who are well rounded, through multiple methods including interviews, questionnaires and in-home visits.
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ReplyDeleteGraded Blog Post #3
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the home study questions being very personal and hard to answer. Since the home study visit is the one major thing separating you from your adoption, most people would say or do anything just to please the caseworker. So that makes me wonder how many of the questions are answered truthfully? I can imagine all the pressure and stress a couple or individual may feel while answering these questions. Like you said, one wrong word or response could hinder them from getting what they wanted in life... a child.
You mentioned that you feel as if the questions were brief and not detailed enough. I kind of think it's a good thing. These types of questions are open-ended and allow the response to go in any direction. This may tell a lot about the adoptive parent. This is also probably why the visit takes so long.
You also mentioned that the home study questions did not address responses that were to be unique or different. I am curious of what type of questions would result in those types of responses.
Altogether, I thought you had some very good points in your blog post. I enjoyed reading it!
Katie L.
Graded Blog Post 3
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that the questionnaire required for potential adoptive parents to fill out is too brief and doesn’t provide enough information to get the full picture of who the individual’s are. I also agree with the statement that it is important for adoption agencies to invest more time in learning more about the potential adoptive parents through interviews and in home visits. I don’t know how beneficial more questionnaires would be because it is the same sort of idea. I also feel as though the interviews and in home visits would be more beneficial because it gives the social worker a more accurate portrayal of the potential parent’s personalities, more information on their situation, and I think the face to face interaction is better than the written evaluation for several other reasons as well. It’s hard to exaggerate who you really are when someone comes into your home giving a better indication of what the living situation would be for the child coming in.
I also agree with the statement that just simply answering in a condensed form when responding to this questionnaire puts way too much pressure on those questions. The wrong answer could mean the applicants wouldn’t be approved for adoption. I understand the necessity of finding the best possible parents for the adoptee but I also think there are many people out there who would provide and support the child with all their love giving them a great situation. That is why I am in agreement with the idea that the questionnaire should be a part of the process but in home visits and face to face interviews should be conducted as well so there isn’t as much pressure on a questionnaire.
-Becky