The name of a New England orphanage in the 1930’s — THE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS 1 — echoes the sentimental rendering of the orphan’s plot in Dickensian literature. Likewise, the ORPHAN TRAIN MOVEMENT has been romanticized as an adventurous journey for orphans ‘gaining a new life in the pure rural environment of the honest farmer.’ The orphan was presented as ‘thrown into the world friendless,’ lost and wandering, in need of the saving grace of a good home. 2

ORPHAN TRAIN DITTY
The Orphan Train, is coming into town,
With the orphan babies, who need a home,

Come listen to their stories, come listen to their song,
A song of lost children, just waiting to be found. 3

Idealized language is used to mask the plight of orphans as the term WANDERERS offers up a romantic scenario far from the very real economic and social pressures which had women relinquishing their children to the care of others. In fact, even though some of the children in orphanages were indeed orphans — having no living relatives to care for them — a good many were simply destitute or defined as ‘illegitimate’ for having been born outside of the institute of marriage. In Great Britain, many of the child migrants sent to Australia (1913-1968) as well as a great number of the 100,000 “home children” shipped to Canada (1869-1948) were not technical orphans, having at least one living parent. As well, here in Canada, many of Quebec’s ‘Duplessis orphans’ (1930-1950s) were not orphans but children of unmarried parents at a time when illegitimacy was seen as a great social burden.

IDEALIZED LANGUAGE also shaped reality for children adopted in the last century as the question “Where do babies come from?” brings up the adoption story. Many adoptive parents even today, tell their children Wasson’s classic children’s story, ‘The Chosen Baby’ (1939), 4 when attempting to explain how they came to them. The story begins with the adoption and glosses over the ugly fact of abandonment. This myth neglects the fact that a child was first unwanted to be ‘chosen.’ 5

Yet again, the term UNWANTED is a loaded word which weighs heavily on the adoptee’s psyche. It is a term that may serve to reassure adoptive parents: a childless couple could gain comfort in the thought of ‘saving’ an abandoned, unwanted baby. While many babies were indeed put up for adoption because the parents did not want to parent, other babies were very much wanted — relinquished because of familial, social and financial pressures.

Parents telling their adopted children that they were CHOSEN conjures up the image of children being picked from rows upon rows of cribs in an orphanage setting for the adoptee. A more common scenario was how the Placement Agencies matched children to families: the sex, age, race, religion and physical appearance of the child was used tp match them with prospective parents. The adoptive parents have little choice in the process. A child does not WANDER into a new home, they are placed out for economic and social reasons and to fill the needs of childless couples.

And so begins the fragmented adoption narrative. Adopted children piece their stories from many sources: a chance remark, overheard conversations, and their own fantasies. Images of being conceived in a filing cabinet, grown in a cabbage patch, carried by a stork, plucked from a row of cribs, saved from the gutter, abducted from royalty, or selected from a furniture store display, abound in adoptees’ imagination. All of these fantasies involve the child being chosen for their unique qualities. It is disillusioning to find out that often, there is little choice in adoption for any of the involved parties.

1 THE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS, (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) still exists today under a different mandate as the organization has changed dramatically since its founding in 1799. It is the oldest, and New England's largest, non profit child welfare agency.

The present HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS's Mission is to ensure the healthy development of children at risk, their families and communities, through an integrated system of prevention, advocacy, research, and a continuum of direct services. 'THE HOME' provides a wide array of services including, but not limited to, residential care, schools, adoption, foster care and outreach for families.

Caring for children in need is one of the greatest responsibilities of a society. THE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS has focused its mission on children for over 200 years. As the needs of children change, THE HOME creates new and innovative programming. It is through these programs that THE HOME hopes to free children from the cycle's of violence, neglect, and pain that so many in their care have suffered.

HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS WEBSITE

2 THE ORPHAN TRAINS - PLACING OUT IN AMERICA, Marilyn Irving Holt, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln & London, 1992 (p.58)

3 ORPHAN TRAIN DITTY, Julie Lapalme, 2000

4 THE CHOSEN BABY, Valentina P. Wasson, 1939.

5 PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOPTION, Ed. by David. M. Brodzinky & Marshall D. Schechter Oxford University Press: New York, 1990 (p.45)

TOP