Preparing your home for your new child

During your home study, your adoption worker will let you know what the regulations are for your home. Most states require you to adhere to foster care regulations. You should receive a copy of the regulations, or you may request it earlier. Most states have these requirements online. Check your specific state section for a link. There are regulations regarding the square footage per person in the house, the number of people per bathroom, discipline regulations, allowance, and safety requirements.

Read this manual carefully, and make sure that your home complies with the guidelines. You may need to do things like adding outlet covers, posting emergency numbers and a fire evacuation plan, make sure all chemicals are out of a child’s reach, and that all fire arms have trigger locks, and are out of a child’s reach. These things are all easy to do, but having them done ahead of time will make your home study easier. If you have to do them during your home study, it will make it take longer.

Get down on the level of the child you are looking to adopt. Are there things that are sentimental to you, or that you don’t want broken? Things you wouldn’t want to get lost or stolen? If you don’t have other children in the house, “borrow” someone else’s child and see what he gets into that would bother you. You can buy corner bumpers for tables with sharp edges on them, or for doorways. Think of what you would do if you were bringing a new baby home.

If a child has been sexually abused, or has night time fears, adding an alarm to their door, may help to ease fears. The alarm lets a child know if someone is entering their room. It will also help you know if the child is getting up during the night. You can find inexpensive alarms at Radio Shack, or through First Alert. They can be set to chime, or to a loud alarm.

You may also want to look into security cameras. There is a company that offers inexpensive, and easy to install cameras, but very affordable. www.x10.com. I have used them, and installed them. They are very easy to work with. You might question why you would want to do this. You can protect both your child and yourself. The cameras are portable, so you can put them in any room you like, or even on a porch to view your yard. It allows you to be in one room, and view what a child is doing in another room, since the display can be shown on a TV, or on your computer, and can even be set to start recording to a VCR when a motion sensor is triggered (with the proper equipment). If your child is napping, you can quickly flip to that camera, and see how things are going.

This may seem extreme, but it truly helps children with these fears.

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Credits: Kelly L. Killian