Do you feel like you have a primal bond with your bio parents?

I've seen it mentioned many times on here by adoptees that they feel a deep primal bond with their bio moms. It got me a bit curious.

Adoptees: If you have that feeling with your bio mom do you have the same bonding to your bio dad? Or do you not have that feeling for either parent?

If you weren't adopted do you share the same feeling with your parents? Or if you didn't grow up with one of your parents do you feel that way about them?

I grew up with just my mom. I never met my bio dad and really don't feel connected at all to him. I don't consider him family, don't have any kind of primal feelings/love for him or want to search for him. With my mom I have a fantastic relationship but don't really feel a primal bond to her. I really love the person she is not because she is genetically related to me. Even if she weren't related she'd be someone I would want in my life.

So just wondering how others felt about their bio parents as far as a primal relationship/bond goes.

2009-03-24T23:18:25Z

Cantstop- my mom never said anything negative about my bio dad outright or in a subtle manner. If i had questions she would answer them no problem. I'm certain if I wanted to search she would support that too.

As for the picking our families. Maybe its because I'm not adopted or what my extended bio family has put me through but I would replace them in a heart beat and not give it a second thought.

blairnative2009-03-30T09:30:08Z

Favorite Answer

No.

I met my biomom. i thanked her for not aborting me. i asked about family medical history, i asked about relatives.

i gained a cousin who i really like now.

but no, no deep primal bond.

my mom is my mom. that is the woman who raised me and demonstrably took care of me.

i wish the woman who gave birth to me well. i dont love her though. i dont wish her ill, but have no secert bond i need to support with an ongoing relationship.

everyone is different I guess.

monkeykitty832009-03-25T11:38:09Z

I was not adopted, and was raised entirely by my biological parents.

I do love them very much, and think they're great people. But I honestly don't feel our bond at a primal level; we actively have to work to stay connected. That's especially true of myself and my mom, because she and I are just really different. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of effort to understand each other, and I still don't always get where she's coming from-- and I know she would say the same about me.

I also don't look like anyone in my biological family at all. Somehow I got a weird combination of genes, so I have quite a few features my family can't even figure out the origin of. So the idea of looking at someone and seeing my own features reflected back is also a fairly abstract one for me.

I'm not sure that someone who isn't adopted can totally understand that experience, so I might feel more of a primal bond if I had a point of comparison with another family. Just to be fair.

But when we're talking about my family, no. There's a bond, but it's one we work at on a consistent basis, and we aren't really super alike. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, though. My life doesn't have to be effortless to be good.


ETA: I'm not entirely sure why some posters are trying to dictate to the asker what she feels about her own family? Everyone is entitled to their own emotions, whether or not they're adoptees. No one appreciates being told by a stranger that they're wrong about their emotions, and to do so is presumptuous. Can we not just talk about our own feelings, without another person putting their spin on what someone/everyone SHOULD feel? Before you make a judgment like that, can you try to remember how much you hate being on the receiving end?

The question is do you FEEL a primal bond. Which can only be answered by the person him/herself.

Shelly2009-03-24T21:56:30Z

I grew up with my grandmother. Which happens to be my dad's mom. I never really knew my bio mom and now I am about to be 31. My dad was always in my life even though he didn't raise me and I love him so much and still consider him my dad. My bio mom on the other hand, was never in my life. She would call about once or twice a year to talk to me and my sister and I have even got to see her a few times since I have grown up, but I just don't have any kind of feelings for her what so ever or even care to! I don't know if it's because she was never around to form a bond, or if I just have so much hatred built up toward her for not being there. I don't even consider her as my mom or even family. Sometimes I think it would just be best if sh never called. I feel horrible about the way I feel about her, but I just can't help it.

Lori A2009-03-25T07:40:04Z

My father was a hard man to love. He made many mistakes in his life time and wounded a lot of people. I always wished he was a different man than who he was, but the bottom line is he was my father. I had a bond with him. I loved him even though I didn't like him.

My daughter and I have a bond. A very close bond. She spent 28 years away from me and we can not get enough of each other. Is it a mother daughter bond, no. It is a family bond, a familiarity, that draws us to one another. She is also totally committed to her parents. Those are the people who kept her from harm, fed and clothed her, loved her through all her insanity as a teenager.

Her father knew of her but did not meet her until a year and a half ago. Within seconds of being introduced they both admitted feeling a strong love for one another, even though they both thought it was crazy, they admitted it was true. They have been working on their relationship ever since. Do they have a bond, yup, they most definately do. It will no doubt grow stronger as they spend more time together, just as mine and my daughters did, but the feeling of family and love was there even seconds after being introduced.

Linny2009-03-24T22:57:32Z

The "primal wound"/bond which is spoken about in adoption is with the first mother. We were connected to her body for 9 months. We knew her. While some newborns do recognize their father's voices right after birth, too, it's the natural mother we ALL recognize before and after birth. That's not an adoptee thing, that's a human thing.

For most adoptees, myself included, they primarily miss their mothers. I thought of my first mom every day, but my f dad, maybe once a month.

I am bonded with all four of my parents. My relationship is very different with all of them, but there is a primal/genetic/all knowing bond with my n mom.

Again, if you are NOT adopted, you do not know what this is like. If you grow up with your natural parents, they are your parents, and you dont give it a second thought. There are many outside influences that factor in, also. If your parents had a rocky relationship, and you never saw him again, there may have been subtle things your mother said about him that gave you the idea he's "not family".

I am not related to any of the people in my a family. I ove the people they are and want them in my life even if we werent related on paper.

I love this answer by an ap:

"It goes to show-no one gets to pick their relatives."

This is so ironic, it's high-larious. Really??? Yet you say your children are "chosen". pffft.

If we could pick our relatives, it would be the ones were are related to.

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