Home Visit...

[oneslybookworm]

Our home visit is scheduled for next Tuesday, and I am mostly not nervous about it. I know there are a few things we need to do before the visit (get a second fire extinguisher, and a few smoke detectors for the basement), but otherwise I think things are in order. However...I have no idea what to expect! I know they're going to look at the house, sit down and talk to us together, then talk to us separately. How "in-depth" is the looking around the house part? Are they going to look in cabinets and drawers?  I'm just not sure how organized I need to get during my weekend cleaning spree. I guess, at the end of the day, it will be what it will be, but I hate not knowing what to expect!

[lizblue]

I think they must vary quite a bit. I was all prepared to show off all of our fire extinguishers and for separate interviews, but ours was pretty chill. Our SW toured the home, making notes about each room (because she prepares a detailed report about the home as part of the home study.) She then sat down and asked us a lot of questions about our neighborhood, neighbors, nearby parks and hospitals. Very relaxed. She never asked to see a fire extinguisher and never interviewed us separately.

Funny story - my cat and dog got into a fight right in front of her (fat cat, tiny dog) which maybe happens twice per year. They usually avoid each other and they never actually hurt one another, but on the most nerve wracking day they decide to be total assholes- not a real fight, just a lot of hissing and barking. Luckily she has animals and understood.

Good luck! I suspect it will be just fine!

[Deleted]

Our home study was only for foster care; and I think adoption home studies are a little more intensive...but I will say we totally over cleaned (though it was nice to have a super clean house for all of 2-3 hours!! haha). Our licensing worker looked at each room and did check to see that we had a smoke detector and tested it. She also made sure we had a carbon monoxide detector. We did not have nor did we need a fire extinguisher for our home study. She didn't look in our cupboards and didn't interview us separately. We mostly just talked for a while. We do own guns though and told her we were planning to buy a safe before we got any kids (we did not have any children in the home before that). She asked us to send her a picture of the safe to confirm afterwards. She didn't care where our cleaning products were kept either. She also looked in our yard. We have dogs and she requested ahead of time that they stay outside when we were inside and then inside while we were outside...just because she knew how "helpful" dogs try to be with new people.

It was MUCH less stressful than I thought.

[ceejay]

Ours was for foster care too but like others we way over prepared. On our first home visit, our caseworker toured our whole house but just briefly looked in each room. For our more formal home study, we thought she would want to see the whole house again and check smoke detectors, etc. So we bought new smoke detectors, got a carbon monoxide detector, fire extinguisher, prepared a tornado kit for the basement, and cleaned the whole house. And then she didn't check for any of those things. haha

I'm sure every state is different and every agency/caseworker is different, but I wouldn't worry too much about the home visit. Of course clean your house and make sure it's presentable, but I would be surprised if they checked in drawers or were concerned about your level of organization. As long as your house is relatively clean and free of any major safety hazards, you will probably be fine.

[gnomesweetgnome]

It depends on adoption vs foster home study, etc. IME. Our foster care home inspection was much more thorough and picky than our adoption home inspection (which wasn't actually an inspection, they just wanted pictures of the nursery basically). The interviews, on the other hand, are very in depth for both and will talk about very personal information.

I would just focus on a basic level of cleanliness and declutter a bit. If they look in your drawers and cabinets and closets, they won't be surprised if everything doesn't look like a magazine, as long as it looks clean and not like you're hoarding 50 years worth of magazines, empty coffee cans, and cats.

[redandblue]

I agree with pp that the first home visit will most likely be less intrusive that you anticipate. Just make sure you have your home tidy and some of the key things they are looking for (I would recommend asking them what they will be looking for so you can be prepared, ie if they want an escape plan printed or if they will just be doing a walk through) . Our first home visit was very minor, a relaxed conversation with all of us there. Our SW did a quick walk through with us and left us with a ton of paperwork to get started on. In that paperwork was the checklist for home safety that would be completed during the home study. We were so worried about making sure we had everything done, and even after she did her walk through there a few things we hadn't finished (she wanted a door to our crawl space replaced and we were in the middle of replacing our main stairs) . She ended up putting in our report a blanket statement that said we will child proof as necessary when matched (child proofing for a 6 month old looks very different than a 6 year old). Even after that I was worried about making sure everything was perfect, expecting that when we matched they would make sure we did all the things we said we would. We did all the things but they never came back to check once we were matched. In fact our next SW didn't do her first home visit with us until our son was a month old (we adopted him as a newborn! ). Good luck and congrats on forward moving steps!

[oneslybookworm]

Thanks everyone, that helps! I know I'm probably overthinking the hell out of it, but it's good to hear it from others. I'm just ready for it to be over...after this last step, we'll be eligible to be matched, which is where the big wait starts.

[butlerfan]

Good luck. This will be the next steps for us for foster care licensing as well and I'm sure I will overthink things and over clean as PP have stated.