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Can I cram any more into 1 post? LOL OK, so, thinking about what all would be involved in a homestudy, and like everyone else I am getting nervous.
1. Anyone with several pets? We have 4 dogs and 4 cats, all are vaccinated and regularly see the vet. There have never been any aggression problems. Our house is liveable (a few tumbleweeds hiding in corners, but nothing major). Should this be a problem?
2. We are in the middle of some light home improvement and so furniture has been crammed all together in mainly 1 room, there are no decorations or painting on walls. Hopefully this should all be done soon, and definitely would be before our child came home. How "finished" is the social worker looking for your home to be? Also, the outside of the house could be better. Grass is patchy and paint is peeling. I know it should be looking as good as possible, but I'm working my way down the priority list, and some things just have to wait a little longer than others.
3. Many years ago, my husband "sort of" attempted suicide. I say "sort of" not to downplay it, but it was a half-hearted attempt. He was kept in hospital for the usual 3 days and released. No problems since then. Never did it again either. What can we expect in regards to this? Should we even bring it up?
We sound like real winners, huh?
Thanks. :)
We have 5 cats(all indoors only), 1 dog and a ferret and had no problemas as long as we showed they are cared for and vetted. We were also finishing the basement and she said as long as it was safe (i.e. no exposed wires) it was fine. Believe it or not they had a problem with baby's room being on a different floor than ours. But since we co-slepp, they waived it. i would call their references to get a feel of what they look for.
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We have two yappy (sometimes a little obnoxious) chihuahuas who are both happy when we hold them so we held them the entire time! Good thing they are light. I have been treated for depression but she wrote "related to death of mother and infertility" I think when you mention your husband you need to say he's in therapy dealing with an unhappy childhood and yes, maybe get a letter from his therapist. If he's not in therapy, that might be a problem unless he WAS....I wouldn't worry about the renovations. We had a very successful result and I think it was because we were VERY relaxed and had a lot of beverages and food to offer! LOL I really didn't want to be too "on" or have the house look ridiculously clean so we just went with the whole "be ourselves" thing with minimum cleaning (you know....heavy cleaning and then muss it up a little)!!!!
Good luck. It was so much easier than I expected. Hope it goes smoothly.
1. Anyone with several pets? We have 4 dogs and 4 cats, all are vaccinated and regularly see the vet. There have never been any aggression problems. Our house is liveable (a few tumbleweeds hiding in corners, but nothing major). Should this be a problem?
At the time of our homestudy, we had 9 cats and 1 dog, all indoors. Just make sure that your home is free of cat urine smell...I had to remove my carpet before my HS could be approved. Trust me, if it's there, you're used to it and don't smell it, so get an "outsiders" opinion before your homestudy worker comes over.
2. We are in the middle of some light home improvement and so furniture has been crammed all together in mainly 1 room, there are no decorations or painting on walls. Hopefully this should all be done soon, and definitely would be before our child came home. How "finished" is the social worker looking for your home to be? Also, the outside of the house could be better. Grass is patchy and paint is peeling. I know it should be looking as good as possible, but I'm working my way down the priority list, and some things just have to wait a little longer than others.
This is called life. Our worker was looking for holes in floors or walls, safety issues (like exposed wiring) and cleanliness...nothing else.
3. Many years ago, my husband "sort of" attempted suicide. I say "sort of" not to downplay it, but it was a half-hearted attempt. He was kept in hospital for the usual 3 days and released. No problems since then. Never did it again either. What can we expect in regards to this? Should we even bring it up?
You will have to have a physical from your doctor, who will say whether you are fit or unfit to parent (or in this case, hubby). I know what you mean by "sort of"...it was his call for attention for whatever needed to be worked out, and he's not been labeled mentally ill or anything right? So don't worry about it.
Sari
Can I cram any more into 1 post? LOL OK, so, thinking about what all would be involved in a homestudy, and like everyone else I am getting nervous.
1. Anyone with several pets? We have 4 dogs and 4 cats, all are vaccinated and regularly see the vet. There have never been any aggression problems. Our house is liveable (a few tumbleweeds hiding in corners, but nothing major). Should this be a problem?
2. We are in the middle of some light home improvement and so furniture has been crammed all together in mainly 1 room, there are no decorations or painting on walls. Hopefully this should all be done soon, and definitely would be before our child came home. How "finished" is the social worker looking for your home to be? Also, the outside of the house could be better. Grass is patchy and paint is peeling. I know it should be looking as good as possible, but I'm working my way down the priority list, and some things just have to wait a little longer than others.
3. Many years ago, my husband "sort of" attempted suicide. I say "sort of" not to downplay it, but it was a half-hearted attempt. He was kept in hospital for the usual 3 days and released. No problems since then. Never did it again either. What can we expect in regards to this? Should we even bring it up?
We sound like real winners, huh?
Thanks. :)
We practically live on a farm. We have 5 dogs, 2 horses, 2 goats, and a cat. We had 2 rooms torn apart getting each ready for the baby. Our SW didn't care as long as there would be a place for the baby to sleep and all the vaccines were current. She asked a few questions about the animals and that was it. We made a big deal out of it. But we didn't know.
Hello!
For the pets, we have 2 dogs and 2 cats. We have a small house too, so they take lots of room. It was no problem. Our sw didn't even ask us any questions about them - I guess it's just very common for people to have pets. We put them in the backyard for most of the home visit because they get crazy with guests too - our golden even put his nose under the SW's skirt... but it went fine! Make sure their shots are up to date, and that the dogs are licensed if your county requires it. Our sw didn't ask anything about that, but I know some do.
For the suicide attempt, your dh should be honest about it, but explain what he did to feel better now etc. It shouldn't be a problem.
Good luck!
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We cleaned until you could see yourself in our hardwood, worried our two goldens would be too rowdy, and wished we could repaint the entire house (but couldn't afford to) before out home visit.
When SW arrived, she loved the dogs and the cat. She even told us to make sure we mentioned them in our profile. She told us all she was really looking for was exposed wiring, holes in the walls, that kind of thing.
She liked that the baby's room will be right next to ours.
It was all surprisingly painless and easy.
Gosh I let a lot of time pass before replying! I did want to thank all of you for replying. It really has made me feel better. If anyone else has personal experience with this, please post!
I don't know if it matters, but we'll be getting our homestudy through the county, as we're probably adopting thru foster care. I think the lady who will do it has already made comments like she doesn't like pets, or no pets in the house, something like that, so I'm not really sure how this will turn out. I guess all I can do is cover my bases - everyone is vaccinated, need to get them licensed though, and make sure no litter box smell!
That is not really fair if your sw puts her personal preference in as the law. I hope she looks past her own problems with pets because I think all little kids should have pets. Most of you ladies who replied have us beat but we have a dog (mini doxy) and two cats and they are part of our family!;)
We have two cats (I'm scared of dogs so none of those for me!). They are friendly and sociable and that was fine.
We live in a small mobile home that's in, well -- fair condition would be accurate. It's clean and safe, and that was all that mattered to our SW.
DH and I have both had some psychological problems in the past. We had to explain extensively on our homestudy questionnaire what went on, what treatment we recieved and why we feel we are okay now. We also had to address it with our doctor and he had to write us a letter stating it wasn't a problem anymore.
We passed with flying colors, and I figure if we can, almost anyone can! We're just ordinary, average people, I feel, and I think those kinds of people would make the best parents anyway.
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We have two verrrry large dogs. We left them outside when the SW came to do the homestudy. She knew about them. We offered for her to meet them, but she also mentioned she did not like dogs. So we lefdt them outside while she was there. It did not affect our homestudy in any way.
I have a large rabbit that won't stay in his cage anymore and minor social anxiety disorder I can toss aside for the sake of a child.
Would I have any problems with a home study?
I don't have a two bedroom apartment yet and my one bedroom place is a bit...
messy -_-
I remember that I had to sign something saying if I had ever received treatment in the last ten (?) years for mental illness. I had seen a shrink about 9 years before that so I put it down. It was definitely situational. Social worker never asked me about it (strange!). So it may be depending on when it happened that it would not be "asked" about...If it is, I would be honest about it also.
Syn, I am almost positive that there has to be a bedroom for the baby (i.e., you can't share a room, whether you end up sharing it or not since I can't get DD out of my room!).
Yes, I'll definetly have to get a 2 bedroom apartment then.
Maybe it will be cleaner than my one bedroom, and i'll have to figure out what to do about this rabbit. (Of course I will not get rid of him, life without Bernie would suck, but there's got to be a way to keep a toddler (When the baby does become a toddler) out of a rabbit's litter box *shudder*. Those things do sometimes look like chocolate mini eggs)
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You wouldn't happen to live in my county, would you Sari? ;)
Just kidding.
It's just that my HS worker definitely put in her own personal opinions into my homestudy.
The homestudy, before amending, basically was written out as we had a clean and well maintained home, but the cat urine smell was overwhelming (of which, it never was, even our SW told us that) and even after removing the carpet and adopting out 4 of our precious kitties, she STILL held onto the cat urine statements in the homestudy, as if she could still smell it (our SW and her supervisor came out the day before and said it was completely gone...and the supervisor had never been to our home), and now, it has caused yet another minute delay as we are waiting to finalize the adoption.
You will get HS workers like this. You do have the right to ask your own SW if this is the only worker you can have...and ask what their policy is on items that are circumstancial and really shouldn't be in the HS.
Yeah, my house did smell like cat pee some. However, it was because I was living in with my grandma 24/7 at her house, and my house, quite frankly, doesn't clean itself when you're gone.
It was basically a "cat house" for 11 months.
Is it like this now? Absolutely NOT! Will it ever be again? I HOPE not. I don't have any plans of 24/7 care of anyone in my family any time soon...once was enough.
Now the judge has read this comment from our SW, he's fine with the adoption, now we're just waiting on the date to finalize.
Sari
Gosh I let a lot of time pass before replying! I did want to thank all of you for replying. It really has made me feel better. If anyone else has personal experience with this, please post!
I don't know if it matters, but we'll be getting our homestudy through the county, as we're probably adopting thru foster care. I think the lady who will do it has already made comments like she doesn't like pets, or no pets in the house, something like that, so I'm not really sure how this will turn out. I guess all I can do is cover my bases - everyone is vaccinated, need to get them licensed though, and make sure no litter box smell!
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