Blog Post One, Julie T.

Blog Post One

As I took the adoption home study, I attempted to put myself in the spot of a prospective parent looking to adopt. While I was taking the home study I kept some questions in the back of my head, including the question, "are the right questions being asked of you as a prospective parent?" To which I answered, overall, yes. I think many of the questions were appropriately founded in trying to find out if a person would be eligible to take care of a child. They asked about the person's current life status and if they are expecting any large changes to occur, both of which would greatly affect the person's ability to bring a child into their family by either adoption or birth. Making sure that the parent is capable of raising an adopted child is extremely important because of the effect the adoptive parent will have on the child, as Susan Freivalds made clear in “Nature and Nurture a New Look at How Families Work.” In her work Freivalds discusses a study performed by the University of Minnesota that found  that adoptive siblings’ academic achievement levels and academic motivation levels were extremely similar, which Freivalds stated is “likely attributable to parental influence” (Freivalds, 2004, p. 86). This demonstrates how important it is that the right questions are being asked and the right conclusion on the applicant’s ability to care for a child is made because eventually that parent is going to shape that child.

The decision on if a person is ready for adoption is crucial, and though I believe overall the right questions are being asked in the home study, I do think that some of the questions could be misleading as to if the person taking the study would be a good parent or not.  An example of this would be asking about someone’s own childhood experiences. I believe that although our experiences shape us, we can overcome hardships in our past to prevent making the same mistakes. A person may have had a turbulent childhood, one that possibly included abuse, but that does not necessarily mean that that person will become an abuser themselves. This also applies to the question "what were your parents like?" (Home study, 2012, p. 3). I had wonderful parents, but that does not mean I will also become a wonderful parent. I do not know how the interviewer analyzes the answers, but I would hope that the fact that a person will not necessarily repeat their past comes into play.

Another question that caught my eye was the question "what is your religious affiliation?" (Home study, 2012, p. 4). I do not fully understand how a person's religious affiliation could either make them a better or worse parent. Are Buddhists better at raising children than Atheists? Or is it simply a question that is used to help match a child up with adoptive parents who have similar religious affiliations? I think this is something that I would be greatly interested in finding out more about. 

Finally, after taking the home study I reflected on how I would feel if I was infertile and wanted to adopt a child and I had to go through this process. I immediately felt worried. If I answered the questions honestly to a social worker, how would the analyze it? I would be overwhelmed with fear that I would say the wrong thing or make the wrong impression. I think there is a tremendous amount of pressure put on these prospective parents and I honestly cannot imagine a study like this determining if I was ever going to have a child or not.  

Julie T.