The view about aging parents
Many come to adoption quite late in life and with aging parents. No matter how unsavory it sounds, our parents will get old and die.
This is a fact of life that seems to get some social workers in a real tizz.
Neil's mother was getting frail and Neil would go three times a week to help her out. When her social worker heard about this she started to panic. She was concerned that there will be too many demands made on Neil and his family and they would be unable to cope. They wanted to halt their adoption process.
Neil had to put a very clear case forward, with information about other family members involved in supporting his parents, how caring for his mother was a fundamental obligation that was part of his life and not an additional demanding role of his life and how the interests of his child would always come first. Only then did things start to move again.
It is a fact that universally people care for dying parents. It is hard and difficult but infinitely doable and as a mature adult it is part of our life's role. As we get older we do have more demands made on our time, but so too does our time management improve and our capacity to give increases. One must realise though, that an adopted child is not like a birth child, they will have some additional demands on you and you must be able to fulfil these demands.
If your parents are ailing, and you are wanting to adopt, be sure you have a stong network of support for them and make it very clear that the full responsibility of caring for your parents does not fall solely on your shoulders.
