Feb 23 2009
Wolverine’s kids
Did anybody else catch Hugh Jackman talking to Bahbawa Waltehz before the show about adoption (specifically, he and his wife adopted two mixed-race children, he says, because they were told few possible adopters wanted them. I wasn’t able to catch everything he said thereabouts, and I can’t find clips of that part. Anybody else catch it)? It warmed my heart to hear him (and, yes, other big-name celebrities) talk so openly about adopting. This, I believe, is a big step up from my parents’ generation, when adopting was looked down upon as being less-than “real” parenting, at least in mainstream society. It seems that the stigma is still there (I really can’t imagine why else fertility drugs and in vitro, etc., are so popular), so I applaud the Angelina Jolie’s, et.al., for taking a public stand for adoption when so many children are (to be quite frank if not PC) in need of parents.
What do you think of celebrities and this new fashion (so to say) of adoption? Is it mostly just another guilty-trip cause, an accessory, a noble idea that should catch on?
I’ll try not to ruin the ending of the Oscars for you then.
Are you talking sweet nothings into my ear?? Ahhh…a topic so near and dear to my heart.
(sorry by the way. I’ve been ridiculously busy and I’m just catching up)
I love that there are celebrities that adopt, and have done so for years.
However, I worry slightly about the media coverage of those adoptions. Look at Angelina Jolie. The woman is ridiculously famous, and some people go to extreme lengths to be like her (ahem Nadya Suleman). Anyhoo, I am concerned about fallout from that. A child is not a fashion accessory, no should it be “designer” to be a Caucasian parent with child clearly of a different ethnicity than you.
The press does not do any favors when it points out differences in mixed families between the bio kids and the adopted kids. The Jolie-Pitts are a perfect example, but you also see it in the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes/Nicole Kidman/Keith Urban families, Madonna, etc.
I don’t think it’s new for Hollywood types to adopt. They’ve been doing it quietly for years. I just think that with more of them doing it as single parents or even with questionable integrity (like Madonna’s), it creates a firestorm.
I think there are also more openly gay celebrities adopting, which is fantastic, but ads to that tabloid headline fodder.
By the way…did you know George Lucas kids are adopted? Talking about hitting the adoptive parent honeypot!
I know one of them appeared in the Phantom Menace as one of Anakin’s little friends.
thanks, owm. i knew that you would definitely add something to this discussion. “designer” parenting, in any form, frightens me.
also, funny that you should mention mixed-heritage families. my church just started up an adoption group (for those who were adopted, who have or are considering adopting), and one thing that some of the adopted adults said (these ones being of Korean descent), “Don’t ever make your child go to a Korean culture camp; don’t bring your guilt trip down on us.”
so, yeah, we’ve thought about mixed-race adopting (certainly not b/c it’s the ‘cool’ thing to do), but understand it would take a LOT of thinking through as to how best raise that child so he/she won’t feel neglected, alienated, or otherwise ’special’.