The homestudy

You’ve heard about it, and now it’s time to learn about it …

The ‘What’ study?

Also known as … ta da! ... “The Dreaded Homestudy”.

To anyone not expecting to have every corner of their home, their life, and their heart examined by a perfect stranger holding the future of the family in a notebook-laden hand, the idea of a homestudy seems innocuous.

Like, hey! What’s the big deal? Flush the toilets, take the dog out of the microwave, and viola! Anyone without a line of crack customers at the door and a black leather harness hanging from the dining room ceiling should check out okay … shouldn’t they?

Well, actually … yeah.

Contrary to many prospective adoptive parents’ imaginings, those conducting homestudies WANT to find that your home will be a good atmosphere for a child, and that you will make good moms and dads.

Social workers are charged with the responsibility of seeing to it that everyone involved in an adoption is ready, willing, and able to act in the best interest of a child. They aren’t overly concerned with the condition of the undersurface of your coffee table or dust bunnies behind your fridge. They won’t care if your socks and underwear aren’t color-coded in the drawers or if your shoes don’t happen to be lined up right-left-right-left in their march across your closet shelves.

They will want to learn that you are mentally and emotionally well balanced, that your relationship is stable, that your finances can cover normal expenses that come with parenthood, that you’re reasonably healthy, that your motivations for adoptions are proper, and that you’re generally nice people with good intentions and loving hearts.

Since there’s no ”loving heart” meter, or accurate ”intention gauge”, a formula for establishing where a family fits on a scale of potential parental perfection was developed: the homestudy. With zero being the crack-dealing sadomasochists, and ten being Ward and June Cleaver crossed with Mike and Carol Brady with Dr. Spock as Godfather, there’s a wide range of acceptable lifestyles, attitudes, backgrounds in the middle range, so try not to get caught up in thinking that anyone will be expecting you to be as beautiful as Angelina Jolie, as tidy as Bree Van De Kamp, cook like Martha Stewart, and bank like Bill Gates.

Successful adoptive families come in all shapes, sizes, ethnic groups, economic strata, educational levels, so the most important image to convey? Your own. Be yourselves.

What it is

There is no set format for homestudies, but there are state regulations that must be followed. Agencies have leeway in style and technique, however, as well as requisites like educational meetings and training classes that are within their rights to set.

The homestudy itself is nothing more than a written report. It states the findings of the social worker who has conducted interviews, usually several and at least one of which will be in your home … hence the name. The process, content, and time it takes to complete vary from state to state, but some aspects are fairly standard.

Here’s a list of subjects a homestudy focuses on:

Background: family, siblings, important events;
If there are already children in the home, their ages, health, feelings about gaining a sibling;
Present state of relationships;
Other people in your life you care about and who care about you… and eventually your child;
Your marriage … how you get along, how you resolve conflicts;
Why you want to adopt a child;
How you think life will be when you have a child;
What you see for the child’s future;
Your ideas on parenting;
If infertility has been an issue, how you have dealt with this;
How extended family feels about adoption in general and you adopting;
How you live day to day;
Your physical health;
Your education;
Your attitude toward education;
Employment and finances;
Any criminal background.