In today's episode, we are excited to welcome Ms. Cox and her guests to the microphone. The discussion is around healthy childhoods depending on healthy decisions by parents and the adults surrounding the child.  A parent can only make an informed decision if they are provided with information, options, and support for their decision.

Imagine being a parent who is facing daily struggles, including emotional, financial, and societal challenges.  What if you were a child who could not safely stay in their biological family. What are the fears, hopes, and dreams of that birth parent or that child, as they move through a system that was created to protect them? 

What if the child truly had a voice in choosing opportunities for their future? What if we heard more children saying, “I was part of the choice that led me down this path to adulthood?”  What if more birth mothers could say they helped choose the best path or family for their child, feeling empowered to make a parenting decision (whether they chose to parent or chose adoptive parents)? 

There are no easy answers. From hospital staff to social service organizations to teachers, judges, attorneys and court volunteers, there are multiple people and organizations involved with families from the moment of the birth of a child through the child’s adulthood.  Every system is tasked with promoting the child’s best interest.  However, the people working within these systems too often fail to meet that mark.  Healthy childhoods depend on healthy decisions by parents the adults surrounding the child.  A parent can only make an informed decision if she is provided with information, options, and support for her decision. Children are very savvy.  Children know adults are talking about them; it’s time the adults talk TO them, and talk to the them in a way that meets the needs of the child.  This discussion will offer ideas around giving voice to children, even very young children.  Each person who touches that child’s life bears some responsibility for both the suffering and joy that child may experience.  Although they are not easy or one-size-fits-all, there are answers, and we will examine how to find them.  

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