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Parental Entitlement and Proper Parenting: ‘We Are the Parents Now’

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Parenthood and Open Adoption

Abstract

Considering the concept of entitlement in the context of adoptive parenthood, MacDonald explores how adopters assimilate their parental status which is conferred through formal approvals, subsequently affirmed, or undermined, informally by birth relatives, and actualised in family practices. The particular significance of family display practices (Finch, Sociology 41(1): 65–81, 2007) for the construction of adoptive kinship is highlighted. MacDonald identifies how adoptive parental entitlement is contingent upon effective child-rearing, and developed in reference to birth parent failings. Simultaneously, the importance of blood ties constrains adopters to facilitate post-adoption contact. Thus, competing discourses, that prioritise either child welfare or essential blood ties, shape the experience of adoptive parenthood. MacDonald considers the respective positions of adoptive and birth parents in open adoption from care, which is described as a potentially shifting balance of loss and gain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK

    Mandi MacDonald

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  1. Mandi MacDonald
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MacDonald, M. (2016). Parental Entitlement and Proper Parenting: ‘We Are the Parents Now’. In: Parenthood and Open Adoption. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57645-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57645-3_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-57644-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-57645-3

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