I AM A PARENT!

Totally bizarre way I've reached today's disturbing thought.

My oldest, Caleb, just turned 16 yesterday. The driver’s license bug is biting hard. He has a permit, but needs to test for his license this week or he’ll need to take the written part all over again. So being a good mom, I’m online researching the where and how to get this done.

Our state now has levels of driver’s licenses for individuals under 18 to 21 years of age. Personally, I like some of the rules now imposed to help young drivers have fewer distractions during these early months and years. Especially since they feel invincible and are driving a deadly weapon.

So I’m reviewing lots of stuff, including the permit rules he has been driving under for the past year. I knew that he had to have either a parent or an instructor seated in the front seat of the car while he drove. I didn’t know that a grandparent could have qualified or even a brother or sister. I noticed that the “Grandparent” label had a listing of all qualified grandparents which included foster, step, and adoptive. I thought the adoptive was kind of odd. Did it mean that if you participated in an adopt a grandparent program that you could have that person ride with you? How would you establish that this was not a total stranger or at least a qualified “grandparent”?

Hmmm…wonder what the parent list looks like?

Yep, it listed foster, step, and adoptive for parents too. Then, it hit me. That’s me! I’m an “adoptive parent.” Someone felt the need to list adoptive as a special category of parent who would qualify to accompany their child as they learned to drive.

Uhm…I don’t think of myself as a special category of parent. I am Keziah’s mom just as much as I am the mom of my four children by birth. I will be Hadassah’s mom too. Maybe we don’t look alike. Maybe we don’t share genetic materials. But I am the MAMA. I am a parent to all my kids.

Sorry for the little rant. It is just one of the many examples of strange little things that bug me as an “adoptive parent.”