National Adoption Month

In honor of National Adoption Month, I am going to try posting different information or news or websites about adoption for your reading pleasure.

Finding the Right Words

ADOPTION-FRIENDLY TERMS TO USE:

Birthparent, birthmother, and birthfather to describe the man and woman who conceived and gave birth to the child. Some prefer the term first mother and first father to describe birthparents.

Parent, mother, father, mommy, daddy, and child to describe the adoptive family members. It is not necessary to say “adopted child” or “adoptive parent”, unless the context is adoption.

Make an adoption plan or choose adoption. These terms acknowledge that the birthparents were responsible and in control of their decision.

Parent her child, when a birthparent decides not to choose adoption.

TERMS TO AVOID:

Real parent, real mother, real father, and real family. These terms imply that adoptive relationships are artificial and temporary.

Natural parent, natural child, and one of your own. These terms imply that the parent-child bonds of an adoptive family are not as strong or as lasting as the bonds formed through birth.

Abandoned, surrendered, released, relinquished, gave up for adoption, adopted out, or put up for adoption

Keep her child, which implies that the child is a possession and ignores the responsibilities of parenting.

I got these from the Adoptive Families website.