How do regular parents of adopted children feel when they read about the latest celebrity adopting from overseas?
Writer Jillian Lauren, who adopted a son from Africa, shares her mom's-eye view in a TODAY Moms post. She writes:
The most common jibe seems to be that these adoptions are self-serving publicity ploys. I have no idea what kind of mothers Madonna and Angelina Jolie are, or what their motives were in creating their families. And neither do you, probably, unless you happen to be close friends with them (in which case, hook me up with a play date). But I do know that as adoptive parents they've dealt with maddening bureaucracy, an intrusive vetting process and a heart-wrenching wait for their children. The problem I have with celebrity adoption isn't the motives of the celebrities, it's the attention span of the reading public. Celebrity adoption is presented in the same way as celebrity parenting, celebrity beauty secrets, celebrity divorce and celebrity addiction: a narrative that's easy to digest in the time it takes to get a pedicure. The focus winds up on cute babies riding slim, designer-jean-clad hips. Adoption seems slick and easy.
What do you think of celebrity adoptions?