How Much Time is Enough for Adopted Children?

Time to Bond with Adopted Children is Key

This Editorial in the Leader-Post caught my attention this morning.  It was originally published in the Calgary Herald along with a news story earlier this month. Being a strong advocate for adoption and for children and their parents having ample time to bond together in the early years I think it raises some critical points.  Some how this law just doesn’t seem right any longer…

Time to bond

The Calgary Herald

Published: Monday, August 20, 2007

A mother of a newborn is still a mother, regardless of whether she gave birth to her baby or adopted the child. It is patently unfair for the federal government to discriminate against adoptive mothers by denying them 15 extra weeks of maternity leave to which birth mothers are entitled.

Patti Tomasson, a B.C. mom who adopted two girls at birth, is taking her case to the Supreme Court after the Federal Court of Appeal denied her claim.

The court upheld the discriminatory practice on the grounds that birth mothers are granted the extra time to recuperate from giving birth.

Such reasoning has no basis in reality. Recovering from birth, whether normal or cesarean, takes about six weeks; the greatest portion of maternity leave is spent cementing the bond between mother and child — a bond that is equally crucial to adoptive families. It is rather ironic for the court to be claiming an additional 15 weeks is needed for physical recovery when some hospitals feel women are well enough to be sent home within 24 hours of giving birth.

It is a shame that parents in special circumstances must continually fight to be treated the same as other parents.

In 1998, Winnipegger Kevin Rollason was denied parental leave after being told he had applied too late for it. The reason he waited was that his disabled daughter, Mary, spent the first 10 months of her life in hospital.

Rollason opted to take his leave later so he could care for Mary when she was finally home.

He launched a six-year battle against the federal government and won — the law was changed to allow parents of disabled children to postpone their leaves.

Tomasson deserves just such a victory, too.

– This editorial was originally published in the Calgary Herald.