My wife had an amazing opportunity to work with an fantastic human being, Astrid Castro, and her organization Adoption Mosaic. I quickly learned how ignorant I was to people’s questions around families of origin (as I had the privilege of having answers come conveniently). Adoption Mosaic is an organization that provides education to cross cultural / cross racial adoptive families. A common question for families that adopt children that appear similar to the adoptive parents, is when to tell the child they’re adopted. Adoption Mosaic’s stance is that the child should be told when they are young enough to never remember not knowing. A phrase that struck me and realized should apply to so many aspects of our lives.
When should children know how babies are made? When they are young enough to never remember not knowing.
When should children know how their brain works and generates feelings and behaviors? There’s always a developmentally appropriate story to tell a child that is rooted in the best science, but related and resonates with what they already happen to know and what their minds are capable of understanding. What are the practical ways we can integrate how we work as biological creatures into a child’s development, so that as they develop they will have more tools to be self learning and adjusting.