If you have a child the old fashioned way there is no manual, there is no class that tells you how to deal with some of the issues that are sure to come up as the child grows. When you are going through the adoption process you go through what is called a PRIDE seminar. I am not sure what the PRIDE stands for but it is a very complete parenting training course.
All parents should have to take parenting classes even if they are having biological children. There are so many issues covered during these weeks and weeks of training. Yes, you read it write weeks and weeks of training.
When you first get a child placed with your family you are a licensed foster parent. All foster parents must be infant, child and adult CPR and First Aid certified. There are many different organizations that will provide this training for a foster family at low or no cost. This is great training to have even if you are not a foster parent. How many times do you see the case of a child dying because the adult nearby did not know CPR? Luckily so far we have never had to use our CPR training but our first aid training many times.
Other issues that are covered during the training include basic child care, proper discipline, child proofing they include all the horror stories of children that have been injured due to these issues too. They want to make sure you know how important the basics are. The health and wellbeing of your future family is so important they want to make sure you have no surprises. You will see photos of children that have been hurt and they are not enjoyable to look at but they do help stress the importance. The simplest things that you may not think could hurt a child can and they make sure you know about it.