Celebrity blended families have become a cultural flash point, revealing a broad anxiety: Do parents really love adopted children differently than their own offspring?
Interesting article.
Not sure about how she gets there, but the idea that as parents we need to be open to the notion that we don’t have it all figured out and never will is I think a very sound one. That our role is one of supporting who they are, not teaching them who we want them to be.
I’ve always considered it an advantage that my two boys are our only children. She makes me wonder that I could be wrong about that.
This is a really well written overview for the AP perspective and speaks well to the biases that adoptive families face. But it totally glosses over the ethics of removing children from country, culture and living family and doesn’t begin to speak to the racism that transracially adopted kids face when they are imported into majority white families and communities. The sibling issues are also glossed over and painted with a wide generalizing brush. Too bad when so much intelligent analysis misses so much of the boat.
Sue – I don’t see where she dismisses racism. And I think she brings up an important issue for adoptive parents.
As a person that experienced natural parents, the loss of them, the indifference of foster homes then a very abusive step parent, I can confidently say that the quality of the experience in one’s family is extremely important. If it were possible to measure it, I would even dare say it is THE important issue the encompasses everything, including dealing with race.
That doesn’t lessen the importance of race and culture and the tragedy of loss all around. It is dealing with a practicality of a situation we are responsible to for the rest of our lives.
JR, thanks for posting this, as well as all the other news you keep your readers up to date on. But I believe this article is from New York Magazine, not the NY Times!
Harlow's Monkey 
Interesting article.
Not sure about how she gets there, but the idea that as parents we need to be open to the notion that we don’t have it all figured out and never will is I think a very sound one. That our role is one of supporting who they are, not teaching them who we want them to be.
I’ve always considered it an advantage that my two boys are our only children. She makes me wonder that I could be wrong about that.
This is a really well written overview for the AP perspective and speaks well to the biases that adoptive families face. But it totally glosses over the ethics of removing children from country, culture and living family and doesn’t begin to speak to the racism that transracially adopted kids face when they are imported into majority white families and communities. The sibling issues are also glossed over and painted with a wide generalizing brush. Too bad when so much intelligent analysis misses so much of the boat.
Sue – I don’t see where she dismisses racism. And I think she brings up an important issue for adoptive parents.
As a person that experienced natural parents, the loss of them, the indifference of foster homes then a very abusive step parent, I can confidently say that the quality of the experience in one’s family is extremely important. If it were possible to measure it, I would even dare say it is THE important issue the encompasses everything, including dealing with race.
That doesn’t lessen the importance of race and culture and the tragedy of loss all around. It is dealing with a practicality of a situation we are responsible to for the rest of our lives.
Ed, was part of your experience being a person of color who was being raised by whites?
JR, thanks for posting this, as well as all the other news you keep your readers up to date on. But I believe this article is from New York Magazine, not the NY Times!
Thanks, for the correction, Psychobabbler. I’ve made the correction in the title!