Set your digital recorders for ABC tonight for Find My Family. From the same producer as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Find My Family promises to be a roller coaster ride of emotion. As someone who has been a part of an adoption reunion, I can believe it.
According to ABC's Web site, this is a 6-episode series and it seems to be focusing on reuniting those separated by adoption. The show is narrated by and stars 2 adoptees who work with the family that is searching and the found family to prepare them for the reunion.
Sounds lovely - right? Well, some in the adoption community do not agree with the show based on some of the wording used in the trailers. "Let's find your family" is one sentence that is grating to the Center for Adoption Policy (CAP). They stated that while they support adoption reunion, they feel that the producers of Find My Family have forgotten that adoptees already have families - adoptive families.
Are adoptive families being too sensitive or is this a real concern?
Look for a sneak peek of Find My Family tonight on ABC 9:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 8:30, Central time.
Bring your thoughts back to the blog. I'm anxious to hear your thoughts - from all sides of the triad.
Source:
ABC.com
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Suggested Reading:
Review of Find My Family
Adoption Reunion and the Adoptive Family How Should the Adoptive Family Feel?
My Adoption Reunion Story
Before You Enter Into an Adoption Reunion - for the Adoptee
Before You Enter Into an Adoption Reunion - for Birth Parents
I’m very suspicious of ABC after what Barbara Walters pulled with a 20/20 episode that led with a tag line: “tune in as five families compete for the greatest prize of all…a human baby!”
ABC does not have a good track record with dealing with adoption in a sensitive way.
Meeting birth parents is a personal decision, and not to be sensationalized. That being said, if someone wants to agree to have their journey documented, that is completely up to them.
Adoptees have 2 families: Natural and Adopted. “Let’s find your family” means simply finding the adopted person’s biological family.
Insecure adoptive parents may have an issue with that, but it’s THEIR ISSUE, THEIR INSECURITIES. No one should be able to adopt if they are unable to accept that the adopted child has biological relatives that they may want to reunite with someday.
The “ownership” mentality by adoptive parents is absolutely nauseating. Grow up, people.
I watched the show, and as an adoptive father of two I was left with mixed feelings. The issue of adoption is quite complex, and with a limited television format it is difficult to present. I like the fact that attention is being brought to the field of adoption, but I noticed not word about the distinction between open and closed adoptions. Obviously, with an open adoption many of the heartbreaking downsides of the closed adoption depicted in the program could have been avoided. The public needs to understand that open adoption is an option today. I also noticed the repeated use of stigmatizing adoption language : “gave up” the child; “track down” the birthparents etc. The birthparents on the show obviously never gave up on their child. And they are not criminals who needed to be tracked down. Let’s work to educate and celebrate, not confuse and demean.
I enjoyed the show and was surprised by how well they did with the whole thing. There is room for improvement but that seems normal for a new show, so hopefully things will improve.
In response to Mara…apparently you are not sophisticated enough to see beyond the manipulation of the television network on your heartstrings. Adult adoptees and biological families should of course be supported in reunited if they so choose to do so (statistically, some do and many don’t). However; it is the exploitation of a personal and private matter and the terminology used that is so disturbing to adoptive parents. Some people do not feel “lost” and don’t choose to be “found”. Certainly not for the sole purposes of the entertainment of others.
i think its a good idea because i am adopted and i am looking for my sisters i just found my birth mom i think a lot of people get get some answers to there questions like why and when they got given up and mabye have a relationship with there long lost family members
i have been trying to find my son for the past 10 years with no luck i eas wondering if you could help me please,i keep hitting a brick wall.
thank-you