Adopting Siblings: Issues to Consider
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
03/12/25
•50m
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Are you considering adopting a sibling group? Join us for this interview with Deborah Bass Artis, MSW and Senior Program Director of Foster Care to Permanency with Children’s Home Society of NC.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why is it important to keep siblings together when placed for foster care or adoption?
- Advantages to adopting siblings.
- Special issues to consider
- Integrating siblings with children already in the family
- Involve children already in the family
- Get your support network in place before you adopt
- Suggested books for helping siblings understand adoption.
- Parentified child
- Tips for handling a parentified child.
- Overcoming unhealthy dynamics from their past
- One child was the favorite in their previous family or families.
- Sibling rivalry
- When is it not a good idea to keep siblings together?
- Consider your motivation carefully- be honest with yourself and your partner about your desire to adopt a sibling group.
- Tips for parents adopting or fostering a sibling group
- Educate yourself before opening your home to a sibling group- it always helps to have realistic expectations
- Be patient with yourselves and the children- it’s a big adjustment for everyone.
- Develop your support system ahead of time.
- Take care of yourself. Spending time on things that are important to you is not selfish!
- If married, ensure your marriage/partnership remains strong- it is the foundation of your family’s health.
- If single, maintain your friendships. You need to have a life outside of your children.
- Find individual time with each child in the family
- Pay attention to each child’s interests and personality and create opportunities for those to grow. Don’t treat the sibling group as a unit.
- Seek out professional support for the family when needed.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
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Question: I have a daughter who has dealt with trauma from consistent experiences of neglect and abandonment. While our home is loving and supportive, she continues to exhibit a victim mentality and has a hard time taking responsibility for her actions. She's a sweet girl, but she makes comments to others that insinuate she is not having her most basic needs met, which is simply not the case. How can we help her, and how should we be responding to her self-victimization?
Resources:
- Creating a Family Online Facebook Support Group
- Helping a Child Heal from Trauma
- Self-Care for Foster Parents
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
When Do I Tell My Child They Have Birth Siblings? - Weekend Wisdom
March 15, 2025
•5m
Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!
I have been listening to your podcast and supporting your mission for several years. We adopted our daughter at birth through an open adoption. We began caring for her on day two; she is now 9 years old. She knows she is adopted and has seen photos of her biological parents. Her parents had problems with addiction and the law. We only tell her, “They were not able to care for you.” She has not yet asked questions about her biological parents, but she does opine about being an only child. We have not yet told her about her full biological brother, the full brother who died from neglect as an infant, her five half-sisters, her biological grandmother, or that her biological father died a few years ago, having “fallen” off a bridge. She will obviously know everything eventually, but we are concerned about when and how to tell her.
Resources:
- How to Find an Adoption Competent Therapist - resource page
- Talking About the Difficult Parts of Your Child's History - online course
- Building the Framework for Adopted & Foster Children to Process the Hard Parts of Their Stories - article
- Talking about the Difficult Parts of Your Adopted Child’s History - older podcast interview
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
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