Monday, January 11, 2010

5 Tips for Raising a Child of Another Race

Another interesting adoptee voice -- Jane UG-LBC. She was adopted from Uganda by an American family in the 1960s at the age of 4. She offers her 5 tips for raising kids in transracial adoption. I've edited down, and only included some of the 5 tips, so you'll go to her blog to read the whole thing:

Tip 1. DO take your child to their birthplace during their childhood. . . . Take them during big life events, such as graduations (leaving Elementary, leaving Jr. High, Graduating from High School).

* * *

Tip 3. DO involve your child in an activity with just their Race. Nothing is worse than feeling like an outsider with your “own people”. . . . Most adopted children (out of race or not) have an incomplete part of them and with Children of Multi-Racial adoption, just knowing who you are really builds your self-esteem. . . .

Tip 5. DO teach your child their original language. . . .

And given my previous post about adopting same-race siblings, I found Jane's bonus tip interesting as well:

*BONUS TIP: If you decide after adopting one child to adopt another child, remember, you are not the United Nations, or Brangelina, and we are not accessories that come in different colors and sizes. Adopt a Child of the same background so your Adopted kid will have someone to relate to. . . .

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