A few years ago, my best friend decided to build her family through adoption. Recently, she became Mom to an amazing young boy. She's taught me so much over the last few years, both about the process but also about how how to be sensitive to adoptive parents and children. So I was shocked when I read that a company called Teleflora, which is currently sponsoring an America's Favorite Mom contest for Mother's Day (Donnie and Marie Osmand will crown the winner on NBC's Primetime tomorrow night), categorized adoptive moms in their contest as "non-moms." An adoption blogger complained, and the company quickly realized their error. They've now change the category to "adopting moms" and issued an apology on their web page.
I really don't think Teleflora meant to be hurtful, but I do think that they weren't taking the feelings of families who have adopted into consideration. By "non" I think they meant, "moms who came to be parents by less than conventional means." They included stepparents, grandparents, and neighbors in the category. Still, I can't help but be amazed that anyone thought describing a mother as NON was appropriate, or that moms of any origin wouldn't be hurt to be categorized as such.
I'm grateful that Teleflora took the complaint seriously and made the necessary changes. A mom is a mom is a mom, after all. What do you think about Teleflora's blunder?
1. Wow! That had to be embarrassing! I'm an adoptive mom myself and I think I'd have been a little taken aback. I don't like that step-moms are also non-moms. In my book, if you are doing the parenting, you're the mom. It will be interesting to see if this happens again around Father's Day.
Posted at 4:38PM on May 10th 2008 by CLM