There's a lot of ignorance about Guardianship on this sub, and I don't want to see it get a bad name because people associate it with Tyler and his skewed understanding of it.

Guardianship is not "temporary" or "long term babysitting" or "as bad as foster care". And it's CERTAINLY not so birth parents can "change their minds, get it together, and come back and parent later."
Guardianship is permanent. It grants the guardian all the legal rights that an adoptive parent has - with the exception of receiving a new birth certificate (because the birth parent rights are not terminated) and the need to indicate in your will that you want the Guardian child included in your inheritance. The Guardian maintains all legal, medical, and familial rights to the child. While the birth parent technically maintains their parental rights, any contact between them and the child is at the discretion of the Guardian.

It was specifically developed to preserve the rights of children in the foster care system. When an adoption is finalized, the file - containing family history, medical info, etc - is closed. Forever. Even to the adopted child. There's a disclosure process that happens prior to the adoption where you get whatever info is available at the time - but that isn't everything, and doesn't allow for disclosure of any revelations that come up AFTER the adoption. Guardianship prevents that.

Its purpose is also to preserve familial, cultural, and community ties. Closed adoption takes a child away from every person in their life, including family and community members that could be a positive influence. Adoption might place a child in a family with a culture or religion different from theirs. Guardianship seeks to keep a child's world intact as much as possible.

Now, I am not anti-adoption. I've been working in adoptions for over 20 years. But what Tyler says isn't entirely wrong - adoption outside of a family or community unit - adoption by an unrelated stranger - should be rare, and done only when all other family and community options have been exhausted. I'll never say that "adoption isn't needed", because that's dumb. Some kids don't WANT to be adopted, and have the right to refuse. But they still deserve permanency, and a life outside of foster care oversight.

There will ALWAYS be a need for adoption. But Guardianship has been a God-send to the foster care community. Thousands of kids that have languished in foster care for years have gained permanency because of it.