One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child's name and how old he or she is.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I may be the only mother in America who knows exactly what their child is up to all the time.
I think it's very important that we instill in our kids that it has nothing to do with their name or their situation that they're growing up in; it has to do with who they are as an individual.
No child should be raised in a system. A system isn't a parent. Even the system knows this, which is why the Children and Family Services Division puts so much effort into finding permanent homes for the kids who are never going to be reunited with their birth parents.
When I was born, my dad and my mom gave me names, but in Africa, when your child is born, especially close family members can suggest names they want to add on. Maybe your grandmom and your grandpop have something to add to the name of the child.
Adoptive parents are taking on enormous responsibility, both emotionally and financially. Quite frankly, they need as much disclosure as possible about the child's background and health to assure the best fit and be prepared.
Parenting is not just about you and your kid; it's also about whomever you're parenting your child with. So there is a kind of 'awareness' involved for everybody. It's all about the way you interact with your child and participate in your child's life.
You can't be too careful what you tell a child because you never know what he'll take hold of and spend the rest of his life remembering you by.
I think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
You don't know your child until they get here; you don't know their personality.
Children rarely want to know who their parents were before they were parents, and when age finally stirs their curiosity, there is no parent left to tell them.