'RHOC' 's Jennifer Pedranti Talks to Son Dominic, 8, About His Adoption: 'He Has Expressed He Feels Different'

'The Real Housewives of Orange County' star is a mom of five

Jennifer Pedranti feels it's important to keep an open conversation with youngest son Dominic about his adoption.

In a scene on the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County, the mom of five, 46, plays with son Dominic and daughter Everleigh, 11, who brings out a kitten the family is fostering. Pedranti segues from talking about the kitten's adoption to Dominic's as Everleigh excuses herself.

"Do you ever have questions about adoption?" she asks the 8-year-old.

"Not really no," he responds.

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"You're young, and maybe this makes sense to you and maybe it doesn't, but you ask about her. And her is your birth mom," she tells Dom, who listens quietly. In a confessional, she explains she began fostering Dom at 11 months, eventually adopting him.

Later in the conversation, Pedranti — who shares Dominic, Everleigh, 11, Greyson, 13, Dawson, 15, and Harrison, 18, with ex-husband Will Pedranti asks him, "Do you think one day you'd like to meet birth mom?"

"I don't know," he says.

"Being adopted, he has expressed that he feels different from time to time," she explains in a confessional.

Referencing her biological sons, she continues, "He'll say, 'Mom, I want hair like Dawson,' or 'Mom, I want skin like Harrison,' and it sucks. Because I say, 'Oh my gosh, mommy would kill to have your skin or your beautiful brown eyes.'"

Pedranti tells Dom that he and his birth mom "look alike," adding, "She's got dark eyes like you. She's got dark hair like you," she says, asking Harrison if his friends ever ask questions about the family.

"There's something in me that wants him to always feel like home and right and mom's got you. It's so weird to navigate because I don't know what falls on him in his own little mind, with his own little thoughts.'"

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