This made me weep. It could so easily have been my story if it hadn’t been for my wonderful loving Nana. She was ostracised for not making my mum give me up for adoption or kicking her out when she became an unwed pregnant teenage mum. The first 6 years of my life living protected by my fierce and loving widowed Nana were the happiest of my childhood. I dread to think what would have happened to my mum and me otherwise.
Excellent, but at the same time very heart-rending story. I wonder just exactly whose "welfare" was paramount, at these times, The mothers, their children (neither of whom had any kind of say in these matters), or society in general?
I’m in my late 60s, and have had a number of friends over the years who I knew were adopted. I suppose I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But when I came to have children of my own, I would have lost my mind at the idea of having any of my children taken away. Many readers will be parents, and will understand the instinct to fight like a tiger to protect your children; but these “immoral” young women were utterly powerless to do anything to keep their babies. It’s both enraging and heartbreaking.
This made me weep. It could so easily have been my story if it hadn’t been for my wonderful loving Nana. She was ostracised for not making my mum give me up for adoption or kicking her out when she became an unwed pregnant teenage mum. The first 6 years of my life living protected by my fierce and loving widowed Nana were the happiest of my childhood. I dread to think what would have happened to my mum and me otherwise.
Excellent, but at the same time very heart-rending story. I wonder just exactly whose "welfare" was paramount, at these times, The mothers, their children (neither of whom had any kind of say in these matters), or society in general?
As a mother and grandmother of 'surprise' babies, I am so grateful to have grown up in a more understanding time.
I’m in my late 60s, and have had a number of friends over the years who I knew were adopted. I suppose I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But when I came to have children of my own, I would have lost my mind at the idea of having any of my children taken away. Many readers will be parents, and will understand the instinct to fight like a tiger to protect your children; but these “immoral” young women were utterly powerless to do anything to keep their babies. It’s both enraging and heartbreaking.