Your reactions to the trend of foreign child adoption among celebrities – Part 4

With such celebrities as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Madonna, and Meg Ryan all getting recent press coverage for their adoptions of children from impoverished nations, there is a temptation to say “These people are adopting kids, monkey-see, monkey-do style, as a way to get themselves more public exposure.”

That is just really ignorant and insulting to anyone who has taken care of a child. These little adopted, underprivileged kids are not virtual pets and I seriously doubt that any of these good hearted celebrities treat them as such.

See, some celebs get a dog for their purse, cart it around for a month, and then you never see it again. Angelina Jolie adopted little Maddox, and I’m not sure if he’s ever left her side; Parenting seems like something she takes very seriously.

Parenting is difficult, and these people deserve respect and a pat on the back for tackling such an enormous job.

My perspective is that people follow celebrities as role models; We see it in the eating disorders of teen girls trying to emulate stick thin supermodels. I think it would be great if some of the people who read these adoptions stories in US Weekly would be inspired to adopt a child by the altruistic actions of some movie star. The world could use more trends like that.

The other effect is that when reporters mention the horrible conditions in these adopted kids’ home countries, such as Cambodia and China, it raises awareness so that people might work together to correct the problems, so that the rest of the kids don’t have to suffer.