It’s funny how you look at things differently once you’ve adopted a child. Stories that you’ve grown up with suddenly take on new meanings. Last night I was reading my son a bedtime story and I realized I had a new one to share.

I was reading “The Ugly Duckling” (adapted by John O’Grady) from the book “3-Minute Stories: Bedtime Tales”. I was reading it because my son loves ducks and it seemed like a good way to settle him down. As I was reading it, I realized that perhaps it was a good lesson for a child adopted from Korea who has Caucasian siblings or even just to the child adopted from Korea who feels lost among Caucasian family members.

At the beginning of the story the mother duck gives the first lesson:

“He’s also the ugliest of your ducklings!” laughed the peacock.

“Yes, my youngest looks a little different,” said the mother duck. “But he is my strongest swimmer.”

The mother duck gathered her ducklings. “Pay no mind to the peacock,” she told them. “Remember I love all of you the same.”

I could live without the middle section where the “ugly duckling” has to run away in order to find himself. Perhaps, I will tell the story with my own editing when my son is a little older. In the story, the “ugly duckling” only seems to care about the outside and doesn’t concentrate on who he is on the inside.

What I liked about this version is that when the “ugly duckling” realizes that he is a swan he doesn’t ride off into the sunset with the other swans. He wants to go home to his mother duck.

“And I still miss my mother,” he said. …And his mother still loved him just the same, whether he was an ugly duckling or a beautiful swan.