to hate this desciption of David Tennants family?

[Bogeyface]

I have noticed that it has happened to Dawn French and Lenny Henry too, but reading about DT earlier prompted me to post.

Reading an article about his new TV series and it said that he was a father of 2 with his wife and "adoptive father" of her eldest child. So......father of 3 then?

DF and LH have always been described as having an adopted child, rather than having a child. Why?

A family is a family regardless of how it comes about and emotionally and legally DT is that childs father, so why make the distinction? Who's business is it and really, who cares?

AIBU to think that the media should stop doing this as it fosters the belief that an adopted child is somehow different from a biological child. In this age of blended families, it seems especially ridiculous to make distinctions.

YANBU in the slightest OP. Really annoys me. If adoption is not relevent to the story, it doesn't need mentionning, and leaving out DT's oldest son and pretending he only has 2, is just inescusable

I am certainly very open about the fact that I am adopted

Are/were you adopted Devora ? I'll admit to being surprised, I did not realise that. No reason why I should know obviously, but I can't remember you ever mentionning it. (Or did you mistype that you adopted your DD?)

Yep, difference between an article/interview actually about adoption and "here is a picture of Dawn French going to dinner with her adoptive daughter" or "Angelina Jolie out with her twins and oldest adoptive son".

Yanbu, unless we are going to start explaining the circumstances of every child.

Elle McPherson and her vaginally born daughter.

Billy Bob Thornton and his cesarean born son of an ill advised night out on Jaegermeister

Jenna and her "oh no its not the menopause twins"

Brad and Angelinas band aid baby girl.

Who's Jenna?

Yanbu My cousin was 'adopted' by my uncle,he was his gfs son at the time.I always thought of him as my cousin not a step.My Grandad adopted my uncle also,my grandad was with my nan during her pregnancy and theres no step or adoptive about it.My uncle was and will always be his son

MIL is very fond of pointing out to my DDs that their 'real' cousins live in NZ, as if my brothers kids don't count. .

Lilka - whoops, that is definitely a typo - you would know by now if I were adopted! (Though that was the plan for my brother, 18 months older than me, born in an unmarried mothers home.)

Have to reiterate a previous poster's point - DAVID TENNANT IS NOT THE BOY'S STEPFATHER - he adopted him. I was in the same position when I was a kid - my mother's new husband adopted me. He is my FATHER! (Sorry but feel v strongly about this)

BTW how cool would it be to have a Dr Who as both your dad and grandad?

Just noticed this and technically they are Doctor Who³ because their dad and grandad were both Doctors and so is their mum because she was created from the Doctors DNA (in the episode where their mum and dad met)!

Devora - haha! I was sitting there a bit bemused wondering how in 3 years of adoption conversations, that had slipped me by

I knew a girl who had to give her baby for adoption, she lived near me, I must have been about 8 at the time. I remember her being pregnant, my parents talking and her going away and coming back un-pregnant and baby-less, which really confused me. I still remember her and feel so sad for her. This was the early 70's, you know the years the papers always mention when talking the latest adoption statistics, as if the number of adoptions in 1972 has any relevence whatsoever to the number of adoptions today

YANBU

But I assume it's something to do with the media wanting to encourage 'sleb' worship - 'oh look at wonderful X, he/she adopted aren't they great role models, bow, scrape, grovel.'

Manic I know what you are saying but as several PPs have said, its like the adopted child is an afterthought so not so much that he is being lauded for doing it, but "oh yeah, he adopted some kid too" like the adopted child is a second class child compared to his biological children.

In the RT the eldest wasnt mentioned at all!

It creates a different family dynamic, thats all.

It creates a different family dynamic, thats all.

And genes are strong influence. Why deny it?

Green Velvet, what does knowing someone is adopted tell you about their family dynamics? And, er, genes are a strong influence on what? You clearly think that knowing someone is adopted tells you other things about them; can you explain what?

And actually DT IS amazing for adopting Tyler. It's not slebs worship, just that it is a wonderful thing for someone to do.

maybe eldest child has a father already???? not sure why this grates on this instance

but agree ref Kidman/Jolie Pitt-

If the eldest child's biological father was against the adoption, it would not have happened.

They do this with Nicole Kidman. Mother of 4. Adopted 2 and 1 born by surrogate. They do it everytime.

If the eldest child is adopted by David Tennant then he is the father, simple as.

Very annoying.

People like Nicole Kidman make a show of it though. They are that big and interesting that they think the world wants to know. Even when the child was born through a surrogate Nicole was on twitter straight away. So who is to blame if the press mention it?

David Tennant is more under the radar and protects his privacy so I agree that it's no-ones business.

That's awful. I hadn't realised that was how they were referring to the oldest child If the eldest is adopted, he's the child's father.

I get similarly annoyed when papers go out of their way to refer to civil partners as 'same-sex civil partner' or 'gay partner' etc. At the moment you can only be a civil partner if you are the same sex. There's no need to go into any more bloody detail!

On a similar note, I know I should read the Daily Fail but I did - I've never liked Caprice but fair play to her, two sons just a month apart as one was with a surrogate. She's managing to breastfeed both. Quite impressive. But I bet those boys spend their whole life being described in terms of the surrogacy, even though they are both biologically Caprice and her husband's sons.

It's comments like GreenVelvet's that really piss me off.

Green Velvet, I'm sure you are not adopted or an adopter or you would realise the implications of your post. It is of course true that adopted children affect family dynamics and that genes count. But that's true of everybody, isn't it? Your post only makes sense as an explanation of this kind of journalism if we believe that the way adopted children affect family dynamics and the kind of genes these children bring are understood by us all.

In other words, you are saying that adopted children are trouble. Which chimes perfectly with what an awful lot of people say, often to our faces and in front of our kids.

So you'll find some of us a little sensitive on the issue. This is my child. She is not a bolt-on, a dynamic or a ticking time bomb. She does?how ever, have a lot to deal with in terms of being seen as 'different' by the outside world and constant little reminders that she is not considered fully valid or valued are fantastically unhelpful.