There are many adoption themed movies available for you to watch as a family. Some of them are obviously about adoption, others are not but do offer good opportunities to discuss adoption or how it feels to be adopted with you children.

Racing Stripes – This is my favorite movie because the main character is a zebra. Ever since I started working with ATN I have acquired a fairly large zebra collection, so I had to see this movie. It starts with a baby zebra that accidentally gets left behind when a circus caravan breaks down during the rain storm. A man comes along and finds the baby zebra and takes him home. He works with race horses and he and his daughter end up raising the zebra. Because he is surrounded by race horses, the zebra thinks he is a horse. It is not until someone tells him that he is not a horse that he realizes that he is different. If you haven’t seen the movie, I won’t spoil the end for you, but it has a great moral message for kids.

Elf - While Santa is visiting an orphanage, a baby crawls into his sack. Not knowing where the child came from, Santa raises him with the elves at the North Pole. As he grows older and become quite taller than the rest of the elves, it becomes apparent that he is “different”. He discovers that he is adopted and sets out to New York City to find his birth parents. He does not get a warm reception and doesn’t understand why. If your child is interested in reunification it is a great way to talk about expectations, and you can enjoy a cute holiday movies

Harry Potter - Kids are crazy about Harry Potter and many adults too. I have read all the books and some of them can be a little dark and scary for younger kids. I’m not revealing any big surprise by saying that Harry’s parents are killed when he is a very young child. He then goes to live with relatives who treat him horribly.

Annie - Most of us know the story of Annie. She is a young girl raised in an orphanage and is chosen to go live with Daddy Warbucks in his mansion. My niece has not had an easy life. My brother denied her existence for the first six years of her life, and money was very tight for them. This is her favorite movie. She never made any comparisons between her early life and the life of Annie, which is something that always concerned me with kids from a similar type of background.

Stuart Little - The Little family goes to adopt a brother for their son. He insists that he wants a little brother rather than a big brother and they wind up adopting a mouse as his brother. At first he is not thrilled with this decision about his little brother but changes his mind. The family cat is less than thrilled and tries to rid the family of its newest member. This is good way to open up discussions about multi cultural families.

There are many other adoption movies available. Be sure to research the plot of the movie and read reviews, or view it on your own before viewing it with your kids. Sometimes the movies can trigger a trauma response. This can be a good way to discuss your child’s feelings in a “safe” manner where they feel less threatened. Because the movie is about someone else they can usually feel more comfortable discussing the feelings of the character rather than themselves.

Photo credit - Hannah's movies