Legal Definitions - parent

A parent is someone who is either the biological mother or father of a child, or someone who has legally become a parent through adoption or foster care. Parents are responsible for taking care of their children and making important decisions for them.

• John and Mary are the parents of their newborn baby, Sarah.
• After going through the adoption process, Tom and Lisa became the legal parents of a 5-year-old boy named Jack.
• When Sarah's parents were unable to take care of her, she was placed in foster care with a family who became her temporary parents.

These examples illustrate the different ways in which someone can become a parent. In the first example, John and Mary became parents through childbirth. In the second example, Tom and Lisa became parents through adoption. In the third example, the foster family became temporary parents to Sarah while her biological parents were unable to care for her.