EDITORIAL: Honoring all moms

Sunday is Mother’s Day, a day when we honor mothers of all kinds. In Minnesota, we might jest that moms come in two distinct groups: anglers and non-anglers. Most moms belong to the latter group.

But even moms who are crazy about fishing aren’t all that crazy about Mother’s Day falling on the same weekend as the state’s walleye opener. This year, a Minnesota outdoorsman who also happens to be a state senator tried to move the state’s walleye opener to the weekend before Mother’s Day.

Sen. Satveer Chadhary of Fridley chairs the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee. He thinks Mother’s Day and the fishing opener shouldn’t compete. So he tried to change it. His committee thought otherwise. His proposal received a reception cooler than the ice-blue waters of Lake Vermilion on an early May morning. Maybe next year.

A few years ago, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources even tried to smooth out the contention over the competing holidays by initiating a Take-A-Mom Fishing weekend, which just happens to be Mother’s Day weekend. Moms fish for free this weekend.

Adoption placement an act of love
But you’ve probably already heard enough about this decades-old Mother-Walleye Tug of War. What really jumped out at us this year about Mother’s Day was a news release from Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, proclaiming we ought to celebrate all mothers, including birth mothers. These are the women who give birth to a child and place their child for adoption.

“For birth mothers, adoption may be the most loving thing they can do for their child,” said Valerie Romanoski, pregnancy counselor with Lutheran Social Service. “We make a special effort to recognize birth mothers by sending them handmade cards because we know that being a birth mother is an important part of their life.”

Ms. Romanoski said most birth mothers today participate in open adoptions. In this process, birth parents select an adoptive family for their child from a group of carefully-screened individuals, make arrangements to meet the family and, together, decide on the level of contact they would like to have after adoption takes place.

Recognition is new trend
Lutheran Social Services says recognition of birth mothers has emerged as a newer trend in the adoption community. We see that as a good thing.

Earlier this year, we saw this trend recognized in the movie “Juno,” which centers on a high school girl confronting an unplanned pregnancy. She decides to have the baby and makes a plan for the baby’s adoption. Some critics interpreted “Juno” as having a pro-life theme. Others, such as the New York Times critic A.O. Scott, argued that the underlying theme “is not anti-abortion but rather pro-adulthood.” Others labeled the film as feminist.

Regardless of how people viewed the film, it showed that open adoptions are more common than ever, continuing to change the perception that birth mothers are social outcasts. Much more could be said here about the pros and cons of open adoption but we’ll leave that to readers who wish to write letters.
The important thing is that birth mothers, like all moms, warrant recognition. In 2004, 6 percent of American children lived with someone other than their biological parents. Those numbers translate into many birth moms. Sunday is their day, too.