Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Adoption lingo, yo.

NEGATIVE TERMS
Gave up her child for adoption
Real parent; natural parent
Adoptive parent
His/her adopted child
Illegitimate
Adoptee
To keep
Adoptable child; available child
Foreign adoption
Track down parents
Unwanted child
Is adopted

PREFERRED TERMS
Placed her child for adoption
Birth parent; biological parent
Parent
His/her child
Born to unmarried parents
Child who was adopted
To parent
Waiting child
International adoption
Search
Child placed for adoption
Was adopted

4 comments:

Carlotta said...

I find this all so ironic because I remember as CLEAR as day the morning I called Dave and told him that I was "giving Calli up " for adoption. It makes me cringe that those words were ever uttered from my lips. Since doing the adoption presentations I remember connecting "giving up" to a coat to a friend or an item; not a child. When I hear peeps using the negative terms I feel my skin crawl off of my body, I know they don't know but I feel like they just should. This is where we all come in to teach. Love these posts and always will. So important.

Holly said...

Great post, very helpful!

Amber Ro said...

it's nice to know what terms I should be using so as not to offend. thanks for always posting such helpful posts.

Katie said...

Perfect! Thank you so much.