Having kids and mental illness

[Marduk]

In most Hispanic families, there is a large gamut of pigmentation. Because most Hispanics by now are some variation of Mestizo or black, there's a huge pool of genes that can express themselves in just about any way.

Although my father is white, and so my brothers and sisters are not as variant, I have cousins who people assume must be adopted, because they are significantly lighter or darker than their siblings. It makes me wonder how long it will take us, generally, to stop making assumptions about parentage based on pigmentation.

[Violet]

Adopting from the foster care system isn't expensive! I know a lot of people are put off, thinking that they'll all suffer from horrible PTSD or something, but I think like anything in life, there's a huge range. And if you're like me and don't like babies, it seems that there are children and teens available

Except I've watched my family members do it. Even the man with a PhD in child development and three bio kids has struggled with it. Not because of the kids (who are great, but definitely have their own issues), but because of parents who flip-flop (one child went back and forth from them to mom and back again for years until the state terminated mom's parental rights and they adopted).

It's not something I'm opposed to, but I'd rather face known issues—especially for first time parenting. Also, the rate of abuse when there are older foster and younger bio kids is pretty high, so I'd like to avoid that by keeping any foster kids younger than biological kids.

[Katya]

In most Hispanic families, there is a large gamut of pigmentation. Because most Hispanics by now are some variation of Mestizo or black, there's a huge pool of genes that can express themselves in just about any way.

Interesting. I remember a family in the ward where I grew up that was 3/4 Mexican, but the kids had a range of skin colors. (Their mom jokingly referred to her "brown kids" and her "white kids.") It hadn't occurred to me that that would actually be pretty common in Hispanic families, but it makes sense.