A young adult Asian adoptee from Wisconsin shared, “I think the struggle for most Asian Americans who have been adopted is moving beyond other people’s racially charged assumptions about what their identity might be and revealing who they actually are.” May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It is essential to support your child in a way that honors their individuality and wishes in how they learn about and view their culture. Below are some ways that you can help them.
- Ensure that your home is filled with diverse representation. From television shows and movies to books, dolls, and toys, our children should see people who look like them. This should be the “norm,” not the exception.
- Intentionally diversify the spaces you frequent to help your child not feel like the “only.” This doesn’t just mean hanging out with other children who are Asian adoptees; it means going into more diverse spaces with other diverse families and experiencing a wide variety of cultures.
- Create an environment that encourages open dialogue. Many children will have strong feelings about their identity and adoption throughout different stages of their development. Allow them the space to openly discuss their feelings and initiate conversations about their identity and feelings associated with it.
We as parents and caregivers must support our children in navigating their identity—ethnicity, and adoption-wise—in an open, loving, informed, and representative way.
Recommended Resources
Training From Champion Classrooms
- Those Complicated Teen Years: Is it Trauma, Adoption, or Typical Development?
- Transracial Parenting Series
Tip Sheets
- Honoring Your Child’s Racial and Cultural Identity
- Twenty Ideas for Keeping Connections to Racial and Cultural Identity
- Promoting Healthy Cultural Identity for Children of Color Living in Transracial Families
Additional Resources
