It’s funny, but especially within the first several months after bringing Desta & Eli home, one of the most common comments I heard was, “Wow! They already call you mommy! That’s wonderful!” It sounded funny to me every time, though I didn’t really think about it that much the first couple of times it was said. After all it was neat that they called me mommy after not even knowing me that long, right?
Then it hit me why the comment was really so amusing (and many of you reading this have probably already figured this out). Hello? The children didn’t speak English before we got them! Of course they call me mommy! That’s what we told them my name was!
I guess it just goes to show how we really make a lot of comments without thinking through things completely. After all, what people were saying would make perfect sense if it had been a domestic adoption, but most (if not all) of the people who said it knew we had adopted internationally. I don’t think the people who made the comment were stupid or ignorant, but even intelligent people sometimes say the first thing that comes to mind instead of stopping to think about how much sense it actually makes in the situation. 🙂
Oh well. Honestly, once I thought about it and realized why it sounded so funny to me it started amusing me all the more when people said it. I never disillusioned them. I just replied with something a little more general like, “Yeah, it’s great how well they’re bonding!” which is really more what the people are saying anyway. Maybe I just need to pay attention to people’s meanings more than their words.