OPINION:
“Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown recently announced that she and husband Jake Bongiovi had adopted a baby girl. She received a wave of replies suggesting the couple were too young to parent, let alone adopt.
“But why is she speed running her life??” one X user asked. Wrote another, “Seems really young for an adoption, but congrats!”
There’s wisdom, though, in building a family earlier, whether through adoption or otherwise.
In fact, more couples should take a page from the Bongiovis’ book and endeavor, when possible, to start a family sooner in life, before backaches make it tougher to chase little ones or fertility-related challenges threaten the dream altogether.
What’s more, policymakers should enact safeguards for Americans who want to build a family but are discouraged by the lack of workplace accommodations and the skyrocketing costs of child rearing and adoption.
In fact, an overwhelming majority of prospective adoptive parents say the sheer cost of adopting is a hurdle to growing their family. Some 48% of prospective adoptive parents say the cost to adopt a child is an “extreme barrier,” according to a survey conducted by the National Council For Adoption and Gift of Adoption.
Though Congress recently enacted legislation that makes the adoption tax credit partially refundable, up to $5,000 per eligible adopted child, lawmakers should do more to tackle the rising costs associated with family building, especially when it relates to moving vulnerable children out of temporary care and into permanent, loving homes.
Indeed, policymakers should make the adoption tax credit fully refundable so that lower-income families and older Americans on fixed incomes, many of whom care for grandchildren, can more easily afford to adopt those in need of good homes.
This saves taxpayers money in the long run. In fact, for every child who is adopted out of the U.S. foster care system, Americans save as much as $127,000, according to a 2006 study by scholars at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Adjusted for inflation, that’s more than $200,000 per child.
Another way lawmakers can encourage family building is by creating a federal paid leave program for those who welcome children biologically or through adoption, as the Bongiovis did. This is particularly important during an age when so many would-be parents are repaying college loans.
Most Americans don’t have the earning power of Hollywood A-listers like the Bongiovis and struggle to afford the basics. Creating this kind of income continuity for would-be families gives the green light to those who want to start or expand their families but live paycheck to paycheck.
This, in turn, creates a culture that values family life and acknowledges the all-too-often disenfranchised and thankless work of having and raising children today, a necessary endeavor in general but especially necessary in the face of global demographic decline.
The bottom line is that building a family shouldn’t be a luxury good but a common good. Our laws, culture and demographic trends should reflect a nation that understands the importance and necessity of encouraging healthy family formation.
What’s more, people have only a short window before parenting becomes too difficult or impossible. As Ms. Brown’s father-in-law sings in his famous lyric, “It’s now or never. I ain’t gonna live forever. I just want to live while I’m alive.” Policymakers should take those words to heart.
• Carolyn Bolton is the advocacy manager for the National Council For Adoption and a former newspaper reporter. The views expressed in this article are her own.
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