November is National Adoption Awareness Month, a time to celebrate the many definitions of family. The U.S. alone is home to more than 1.5 million kids who were adopted. A reported 60 percent of Americans have personal experience with adoption.
The stigma long associated with adoption has lessened in recent years. Adoption is out in the open now, compared to a generation ago when many children weren’t even told they had been adopted (truly hard to imagine). Thanks to all the people who have formed their families through adoption, and celebrities like the Jolie-Pitts, Katherine Heigl and Madonna, much more is said and written about adoption than ever before. Not that it’s been without controversy. Endless comments have centered on the motivations of celebrities who adopt from overseas. Interesting because I don’t see the people making these comments adopting anyone, domestically or otherwise!
Yet, the stigma lingers. And if the child is from another culture, well that just adds another layer of complexity. Just ask my daughter, who was adopted as an infant from China. She suffers regularly from the cruel and racist comments of her schoolmates. Now that she’s in middle school, the barbs have become sharper and more hurtful. Eye pulling. Gibberish meant to sound Chinese. Rude and personal questions. Because parental involvement is diminished in middle school, many of the kids don’t know my daughter was adopted. But if they find out, then she hears those comments too. Kids in middle school want one thing: to fit in—which is hard to do when you’re a Chinese child with Caucasian parents, being raised in a relatively non-diverse area.
Let’s hope National Adoption Awareness Month, celebrity adoptions, and continued dialogue will help to shine a light on the many ways a family can be formed. As our world becomes smaller and more diverse, maybe one day the stigma will vanish completely.
Darlene Friedman, senior director of membership marketing for Soroptimist (Soroptimist.org), co-authors a blog with her daughter (Edens-Garden.com) for tween girls and their moms. Soroptimist is an international women's organization for international women's issues.
The stigma long associated with adoption has lessened in recent years. Adoption is out in the open now, compared to a generation ago when many children weren’t even told they had been adopted (truly hard to imagine). Thanks to all the people who have formed their families through adoption, and celebrities like the Jolie-Pitts, Katherine Heigl and Madonna, much more is said and written about adoption than ever before. Not that it’s been without controversy. Endless comments have centered on the motivations of celebrities who adopt from overseas. Interesting because I don’t see the people making these comments adopting anyone, domestically or otherwise!
Yet, the stigma lingers. And if the child is from another culture, well that just adds another layer of complexity. Just ask my daughter, who was adopted as an infant from China. She suffers regularly from the cruel and racist comments of her schoolmates. Now that she’s in middle school, the barbs have become sharper and more hurtful. Eye pulling. Gibberish meant to sound Chinese. Rude and personal questions. Because parental involvement is diminished in middle school, many of the kids don’t know my daughter was adopted. But if they find out, then she hears those comments too. Kids in middle school want one thing: to fit in—which is hard to do when you’re a Chinese child with Caucasian parents, being raised in a relatively non-diverse area.
Let’s hope National Adoption Awareness Month, celebrity adoptions, and continued dialogue will help to shine a light on the many ways a family can be formed. As our world becomes smaller and more diverse, maybe one day the stigma will vanish completely.
Darlene Friedman, senior director of membership marketing for Soroptimist (Soroptimist.org), co-authors a blog with her daughter (Edens-Garden.com) for tween girls and their moms. Soroptimist is an international women's organization for international women's issues.
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Tags: People and Society
Tags: People and Society