When Work Comes Home and Home Goes to Work: Child Welfare Social Workers as Foster and Adoptive Parents

Authors

  • Eileen Mayers Pasztor California State University,Long Beach
  • Monica McCurdy University of California,Los Angeles

Abstract

If you are both a child welfare social worker and foster or adoptive parent, family members and friends outside the field assume you have special skills when it comes to parenting. Your children also think you should be much better parents because you are, after all, child welfare social workers. Whether trying to advocate for macro policy issues, carry a caseload, or manage one's family, there can be a disquieting disconnect between what textbooks teach and what children do. As two child welfare social workers whose collective experience spans two generations, the authors of this narrative became foster and adoptive parents for children with special needs. They found a common bond through the intersection of their professional and family experiences, and share what happened when workplace knowledge came home, and home life went to work. This narrative describes the lessons learned, as well as recommendations for the field of foster care and adoptions.

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How to Cite

Pasztor, E. M., & McCurdy, M. (2014). When Work Comes Home and Home Goes to Work: Child Welfare Social Workers as Foster and Adoptive Parents. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 15(2), 95–106. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/881

Issue

Section

General Submissions