We all love a good “up from the ashes” story. Rooting for the underdog is just plain fun. Watching the “come-back kid” drop the mic is thrilling.

Simone Biles does not deserve to be cast as a character in our fairy tales.

As the parent of a kid from a hard place, I get the desire to see a “cinderella story” emerge. I also understand that desire is mostly gross and incredibly unfair. My child doesn’t owe me or society anything. He doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone. He is not responsible for changing the statistics or topping the charts. He certainly doesn’t need to “come out on top” in order to validate some weird made up idea of what it means to have a “successful adoption” story.

We must be careful with our definition of “success.” In fact, let’s just nix the word altogether. Let’s replace it with words like “kind” and “compassionate” and “thoughtful.” Let’s let those labels define our kids’ stories.

If you think I’m making this up, just look at a few of this week’s headlines regarding Simone Biles: Read More