Abstract
Growing numbers of children across the world cannot live with their birth parents due to issues associated with abuse and neglect. This necessitates the placement of such children with adoptive or foster parents who will raise them as their own. Yet for adoptive and foster parents, the phrase “as their own” is particularly complex. This is due to both the norm of reproductive heterosex and its privileged position in many geographical contexts, and given the fact that for many children an ongoing relationship with their birth parents will be important. The narratives included in this chapter highlight some of the tensions that adoptive and foster parents experience in conceiving of, and developing kinship relationships with, children placed in their care. The chapter explores both the joys that adoptive and foster parents experience in conceiving of their families, but also the challenges they often face when negotiating institutional and public attitudes toward adoptive and foster families.
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