All right. Now I'm really bummed. I knew that I would be. Surfing the internet I came across several sites purporting to discuss Adopted Child Syndrome. Why did I even bother? Me, with my can't we focus on the positive attitude. What was I thinking? I guess it was like the proverbial train wreck on the side of the road that I simply could not force myself to look away from. Too bad for me. And now, too bad for you too. I sat there fuming while I read the information on a couple of these sites...sorry, but you'll have to self-inject your poison and ferret out these sites by searching for them on your own. I refuse to list the links here...and then a thought hit me that was particularly bothersome. If you mentally turned down the intensity of the tone of the commentary just a teeny bit, much of the discussion mirrored the thoughts, issues, and concerns that are discussed on mainstream adoption sites every day. YIKES! Before I knew it, there I was, staring at another wreck.

For every "extreme" behavior that was asserted to be an indicator of this so-called Adopted Child Syndrome, I could identify a similar issue of concern frequently addressed in the mainstream about adopted children. You can imagine that the constellation of "symptoms" discussed would be recognized by many of us as Reactive Attachment Disorder, a construct that I don't have a quarrel with at all. I don't know why, but for some reason the label Adopted Child Syndrome just rankled me. Maybe Shakespeare was wrong. This business about "what's in a name, would not a rose..." blah, blah, blah. Maybe, there's a lot in a name, or a label.

Also, while I'm venting. I read a number of articles about the use of this disorder (I'm sneering, can't you tell?) as a defense in murder trials where adopted children have killed their parents! That really bothered me. I don't know why. One would think that I am being prickly about this topic because I am an adoptive mother. But, I am also a woman and I am not bothered by the concept of Battered Woman Syndrome. Not one bit. For some reason I totally get the Battered Woman Syndrome defense in murder cases where a battered woman murders her abuser. But Adopted Child Syndrome? As a murder defense? Good grief.

There's no bottom line to this post. It is just a rant about the things that can set an adoptive parent's teeth on edge. I gotta go now and massage my jaw.