The Future of Children

I grew up in a traditional family with a mom and a dad and two sisters and a brother. I had a great child hood, one that every child should have. My family too was not limited to one mom and one dad. I had the other moms in the neighbor hood and I had my summer mom and dad and I had cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and even an occasional guest who become part of our family from time to time. 

But I also remember the adopted children who were teased and isolated from the rest. They had a mom and a dad too but they did not have the same privilege as I did. Today adoption is common place. It is critical to children who did not get the kind of traditional family I did. It is critical to the needs of children and solving so many of our social problems. We have come to accept the value of adoptive families. 

So I rejoice in the passage of marriage equality and the renewed support for our children and the diversity of family units. I empathize with the supporters of traditional family units because I know those values as my own. In time we will come to accept the value of all marriages and the family values they provide.

But more importantly

I hope that we will once again come to realize

that it truly does take a village to raise a child.

Paula Overby