What is it

The Pie Charts allow you to map how your day is shared in your days, and can help make room/time for the child.

When is it used

It is used in session 3: The impact of loss and separation, its relevance to adoption ; Identity, difference and belonging.

It is used in conjunction with the Care plan.

Resource

Divide the circle representing a typical week-day, and a week-end, into color-coded segments to represent the average amount of time you tend to spend on each activity.
Then, with your partner if theirs is a joint application, identify what adjustments you will make to each chart to include the space to parent your adopted child.

Example

You will need to figure the time you spend on activities each day, and then how you will need to change it to accommodate a child.

Week-end

Thursday

Tips and tricks

Instead of using a Pie Chart, use a Donough Chart.

Donough charts can be created in MS Excel, or other similar applications.
They will show the sections for each entry, but allow for multiple layers: now, 1st year the child arrives, after 1st year.

This can be important as you have to commit to take a year off to take care of the child.

Another trick

Have the exact same sections for the week days, the week-end and before/after the arrival of the child, even if it means some sections have “0 hours” dedicated to them. It will allow the software to assign the same colors in the same order to all sections.

Do the calculations for all the days of he week and of the week-end, and the average the amount of time for the week-days and for the week-end. So you get one typical week-day, and one typical week-end.

If some days are very very special, with special activities, then do a chart for each of those days, as you may need to cut in some of the actities.

Finally do not bundle activities just to make you feel good about yourself. For instance bundling TV with reading when you spend 5 hours in front of the TV and 30 minutes reading… is not really honest with yourslef.