Parents

A parent's role will depend on the corner of the adoption triad you find yourself on. If you're an adoptee, you may consider your birth and adoptive parents to both fit a parental role. As an adoptive parent, you may prefer to differentiate based on the role of raising and financially supporting a child. As a birth parent, bringing a child into the world and placing him or her in a more stable family may have been the most important parental decision you could have made. The sliding spectrum of being a parent is easily subjective.

What is not subjective is the need for a child to have someone to identify as a parent. Parents provide worldly wisdom, unconditional love and support to a child. This is true for biological and adoptive parents. However, adoptive parenting can run into a few adoption-related obstacles as a child matures.

A common obstacle in adoptive parenting will involve telling a child his or her adoption story and answering progressively tougher questions as a child matures, particularly those about his or her biological parents. This may even carry over into dealing with an adult adoptee who chooses to search for his or her biological parents. Some children may grieve for their birth parents. Older children who were placed involuntarily may have behavioral issues as a result of their biological parents' lifestyles.

Adoptive and biological parents can seek advice and guidance through online support forums.