Comments on: The Media’s Slant on Russian Adoptee Story is Getting on My Last Nerve

By: Melody

Melody — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:34:10 +0000

As biological mother to one son and mother by the gift of adoption to 3 sons (who were severely abused as infants and had fallen through the crack of our society’s system), I stand upon the soapbox with you.

Thank you for writing.

By: Anonymouse

Anonymouse — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:07:40 +0000

Re: “And I’ve ranted before about how the media covers adoption-related stories — that somehow parents who decide to adopt are more suspect in their desires and motivations than those who choose to (or are able to) have children the “old-fashioned” way.”

Of course, that same media is often just as horrid to people who can’t have children and spend thousands of dollars on various fertility treatments. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:14:09 +0000

Actually I think the attention is on because this imperils other international adoptions in Russia and other places. It’s not just the media here that overreacts it is also the other countries.

By: Tonya

Tonya — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:51:45 +0000

I do agree, I think the media weighs much harder on adoptive families and seems to insinuate that folks who are adopting are doing so with ulterior motives. And it seems like the only time a biological family abuse situation comes to the attention of the media is if the child winds up dead, which is just perfect timing since the victim can no longer be saved. I have personal experience with the whole bio-family abuse business and I have to say that in all actuality a child who is adopted has more rights, more programs, and more representation than those bio kids. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that abuse of adopted children doesn’t exist (as this case clearly shows us) but I think the media is missing the forest for the trees here. Why don’t they concentrate on abuse/neglect as a whole rather than stigmatizing a certain group of folks (adopters), who, on the whole, are loving, caring parents.

By: Daisy

Daisy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:32:49 +0000

I continue to be shocked by bad parenting – I hope I never lose that shock. It’s the shock and the caring that prompt me to call CPS when I see drug use in a home or suspect abuse and neglect.

Watching kids grow emotionally is one of the delights of my job (teaching). Watching them get hurt is one of the biggest heartbreaks.

By: jodifur

jodifur — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:16:20 +0000

Children are abused and neglected and abandoned all the time, you are right, and it is horrible. Thank you for drawing attention to it.

Children are not sweaters, you can not return them.

By: OmegaMom

OmegaMom — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:30:20 +0000

I think one reason they pay so much attention to Adoptions Gone Wrong is that everyone knows that adoptive parents are screened and vetted left, right, back, forth. So it’s a “man bites dog” kind of story: how amazing and horrible that someone who went through all that screening behaved that way! People who have kids biologically aren’t screened, so you’re getting the “normal” percentage of bad folks who can’t handle being parents.

Does that make sense?

By: Julie Pippert

Julie Pippert — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:03:21 +0000

I see your point, but I think that this has more to do with our shock and horror at the idea that instead of contacting the agency and working out a safe and okay way to handle this, the mother put the child on an airplane to a foreign country by himself the way she did. It’s horrifying. So much so that it stands out, and that is why I think it’s getting attention. My news gives a lot of attention to stand out stories about kids, regardless of how they came into the family. In fact, they seem to thrive on horror stories about kids. I can’t even watch local news in the morning any longer. Thus, perhaps my POV is different because I do hear about it so much.