As my first
official blog, I was asked to analyze a home questionnaire that prospective
adoptive parents would have to answer during the process. The questionnaire had questions that
pertained to a person’s personal view of themselves, their relationship,
extended and close family relationships, finances, parenting philosophies, and
other people or children that may live within the household (Home Study, pg. 2-4). These are just a highlight of the types of
questions that are asked of a couple who are looking to adopt.
I feel that
the questions above give a fairly good idea of the type of people and situation
a child may be going to. I would not
change the type of questions asked because I feel that all the questions give a
holistic idea of what a household would be like. I also feel like it would give a good
description of what type of parent someone hopes to be. Though a parent may not end up parenting the
way they had originally imagined.
Parenting has a learning curve and like all things in life; you can plan
on doing it one way, but change your game plan depending on how life turns
out.
A person’s
life is stressful enough and the amount of time a person has outside of work,
family, and miscellaneous life duties for most people are probably pretty
minimal. So, the thought of adding
adoption to this list is overwhelming for me.
I just listed a very condensed version of the questionnaire prospective
parents are supposed to answer. When
trying to answer these questions about myself, I found out very quickly that a
short sentence or two would not suffice.
Though the questions are very short and to the point, the answers to
them are not at all. It would take a lot
of time and thought to answer this questionnaire. A person should note that this is just one
part of the process and that the hours spent on this questionnaire is just a
small chunk of the hours that will be spent on the process as a whole. Overall, I think that this time would be well
spent. Becoming a parent is a big
decision and people should have to think long and hard about the type of home,
parent, and environment they could give their child.
In a perfect
world, I would say ALL parents adoptive or not should go through a similar
process, but that isn’t the type of world we live in. But, one advantage that this process has for
adoptive parents and children is that this process provides children with parents
that are more equipped to provide a stable home from day one, as compared to a
person that becomes a parent before they are ready or prepared for the
challenge. That type of person may take
years to make a home “ideal” to a society’s standards or worst, they may never
be able to give their child everything they deserve and need.
Lisa R.
graded reply: 1 (Hailey R.)
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement, Lisa, that adoption processes like the home study questionnaire “help provide children with parents that are more equipped to provide a stable home.” Additionally, I foresee that this questionnaire could turn willing and potentially amazing parents with stable homes away from adoption. The cost of filling out this questionnaire is steep and the questions are fairly ambiguous. I would be afraid to give an answer that might reduce my likelihood to adopt, which could cause dishonesty on the questionnaire or prevent others from completing it.
On the other hand, perhaps this questionnaire helps “weed out” those who thought they were prepared to adopt, but realized through answering the questions that they needed to resolve conflicts in their lives or find additional resources before making that life-changing decision. Perhaps this is why “parents would almost always go through it all again in a heartbeat to get the child they found at the end of their journey” (Pertman, 2011, p. 27). A suggestion is that the questionnaires help illustrate the holistic picture of what it means to adopt and all the areas in one’s life that will be affected. Originally I wondered why the questionnaire asked about the person’s hobbies. Then I realized that if a person was entirely attached to those hobbies, and they weren’t able to continue their hobbies after adopting a child, this could have severe emotional and psychological consequences for that person. This could negatively impact their parenting experience. Like everything in life there are many advantages and disadvantages of filling out something such as the home study questionnaire, but will likely be continued until experts discover a more accurate and efficient way of assessing potential parents.
-Hailey R. (group 2)