Just how invasive is the home study?

Sparky1014 · February 2014

I used the search before posting, promise! In older threads, it looks like for the most part everyone says the home study isn't that bad. At orientation this morning, the social worker warned us that the home study is am EXTREMLEY invasive and intrusive process,and that nothing is off limits. This is a fost-adopt state run agency. Are the regulations stricter, and that's why the home study is more invasive? Or is it truly just a getting to know you process and not that bad?

bumpuser794640 · February 2014

The homestudy is pretty invasive in that they learn about every aspect of your life - finances, sex life, medical history, family/personal history, personal beliefs, etc. This goes for private and foster-adopt equally. Fostering is more strict as far as your actual house safety-wise, plans for emergencies, prep for the ages you'll be fostering, etc.

Cmartin6706 · February 2014

We been through two homestudies: private and with the county. Neither one was terrible. They talked with us for two hours or so each. Questions about our parenting style and thoughts, relationships with family, spouse, friends and exs including current and past, why we wanted to adopt, how we got/get along with our parents, siblings, friends and spouse, etc. Never one question about our sex life. Of course drug use and mental/ medical history are included. For us it was just talking about ourselves but nothing too strange or uncomfortable.

bumpuser794640 · February 2014

Cmartin - those type of questions (sex life. Etc.) Were in our questionnaire that we filled out ahead of the actual interviews.

Dr.Loretta · February 2014

It really can vary. I had heard that nothing was off limits, including sex life. I asked our SW if they would ask about our sex life, and she visibly blanched. They didn't ask about that at all. We got more of what Cmartin described.

DH was so worried they'd be rifling through our underwear drawers at our home visit, and they just walked through and made sure it was suitable to raise a child.

FTR we did an adoption through an agency, not foster/adopt

Ihope · February 2014

I do home studies and mine are very invasive and usually take 2 apps each a few hours long. Some of the ones that aren't as detailed have gotten kicked back by the court and I've reinterviewed some of those families. It's meant to protect the children being adopted.

maryoosa · February 2014

We did adoption through an agency--- we didn't find our homestudy very invasive at all-- we're also both big talkers and not really shameful or modest about anything in our lives or relationships. We were each asked to write an autobiography which detailed our lives growing up, our education and educational beliefs, our meeting and our relationship, our relationships to parents and siblings, our religious belief system if we had one, our desire to adopt and our understanding of open adoption and our child rearing values and beliefs. We had one visit in total from our homestudy provider that lasted about 6 hours total. She interviewed us each individually and then did a couples interview and then the "home inspection" all in one shot because she lives pretty far from us. Overall, it was fun.

Sparky1014 · February 2014

Thanks ladies! I'll be a single mom by choice, so I imagine no questions about the spouse. Sounds like it really depends on the social worker. I'm a pretty open book, so not too worried, but still so new to all of this.

MagickalNarwhal · February 2014

I never saw it as invasive, more... thorough. The home visit itself was no big deal, it was more the questionnaire that we had to answer. There were a lot of challenging, intense, intimate questions. I honestly like talking about that sort of thing for the most part, and I found it was honestly a good opportunity to be really reflective and spend some good time thinking about new things.

plus12012 · February 2014

Your life is kind of an open book throughout the adoption process. But, that being said the home study interviews weren't that bad. We actually had some really interesting and fun conversations. I think a lot of how you feel about your home study has to do with the people that conduct them.

JourneytoJoy07 · March 2014

We are going through an agency to do DIA. Our homestudy was not bad at all. It was no different than giving one of our friends a tour of our house for the first time, except she had a checklist to make sure we had a fire extinguisher, smoke detectors, etc. The interviews were really like getting to know you type things, and like plus said, it was pretty fun and interesting.

irismorning · March 2014

Sparky1014 said:

Thanks ladies! I'll be a single mom by choice, so I imagine no questions about the spouse. Sounds like it really depends on the social worker. I'm a pretty open book, so not too worried, but still so new to all of this.

CaptainSerious · March 2014

Ours was pretty invasive, although the sex questions were glossed over. "So, I assume you have no issues with your sex life. Everything is going well there, and you two are in sync, am I right?" There may have been a couple of follow-up questions, but that was pretty breezy.

We felt that other areas were more intrusive, such as things pertaining to our religion, family relationships, finances, reasons for wanting to adopt, etc. Intrusive, but in many cases necessary.

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