Search Results for: blog barriers to claiming an older child in adoption

“Wrongful Adoption” Lawsuits

Occasionally one hears of adoptive parents suing an agency for “wrongful adoption”. The parents usually claim that after they adopted the child, the child began to exhibit special needs and/or behaviors that were unexpected. For example, a child who sustained extensive sexual and physical abuse is considered at risk for attachment disorders. Children who were abused themselves also are at risk for becoming abusers of others. A child may have disabilities related to fetal alcohol exposure. The parents claim that the agency either knew about these problems, or factors putting the children at high risk for these problems, and withheld … Continue reading →

Barriers to “Claiming” an Older Child in Adoption.

Our culture seems to have strong social messages that work against an unconditional commitment of adopting older children. People talk about “molding” a child and it’s a generally accepted attitude that the younger a child is when placed for adoption the better. Parents have more control and influence over such things as personality development, moral and social values, and behavior norms. Developmentally this is a good argument and a valid point of view, however, this social message becomes dangerous to the claiming process when parents are encouraged to see the older child as somehow alien, not part of themselves, and … Continue reading →

Parental Claiming of an Older Adopted Child.

The majority of parents keep their baby or child. However, there are too many adoptive parents, especially those who adopt an older child, who think they can give them back or trade them in as if they were a used car. It is true that many biological parents relinquish their child, but not nearly as often or with such ease, as do adoptive parents of older children. It’s a fact that parents adopting older children are expected to meet a higher level of special needs then biological parents or infant adoptive parents. Pre-placement training makes it very clear that adopting … Continue reading →