Using positive adoption language is important in every-day life. If you are involved in the adoption process it’s important that you know the positive terminology so that you can pass it along to your family, friends and co-workers who may not know what they are saying can be construed as offensive.
Each week we will review a positive adoption term and it’s unconstructive counterpart. If you have any suggestions for positive or negative terms that we haven’t covered yet, please leave them in the comments, or email Alex
Today’s positive adoption term is “Born to unmarried parents” and its unconstructive counterpart is “illegitimate.” It’s common sense that you don’t want your son or daughter being called illegitimate. Just because your child was born to parents who were unmarried at the time does not discredit their immense worth.
At Adoption STAR we hope you, your spouse, or child will never encounter such negativity, whether it is purposeful or not. However if you are in a position where you hear the term “illegitimate child”, and you feel the need to correct the person, the correct terminology is “born to unmarried parents.”