Unique story about a child raised by college students

I'm horrified by this whole concept. 


No she didn't. She had a revolving door or babysitters at best. 


Yes, all children would be better off raised by a succession of temporary caregivers. 

Under the circumstances, while not ideal it was probably better than most alternatives since the widowed dad was barely scraping by, it was the Depression and he had eight other kids living in a two bedroom house. At least that way he was able to come see her and she was able to know and spend time with her siblings once she got older.

It seems to me that Barbara’s circumstances were very unique and the arrangement between the college and her father not willing to give her up for adoption May have been the best option.

Sannie Callan certainly made sure Barbara bonded with some other relatives and siblings, so there was a genuine level of care for her well being, not just as a practice baby for the students.

After reading other stories about orphanages and the way adopted children were abused during the Great Depression, I think Barbara probably got lucky. She seems to think so anyway.

Even now, I wouldn’t wish fostering or an orphanage on any child. So much abuse.

It worked for her, but I agree with busy. The college had a revolving door of practice babies come through, for periods of 2 weeks to 1 year, in addition to Barbara.

As someone who sees a lot of children whose parents cannot care for them in my travels through the past via either local history or genealogy work, I find this fascinating. And I think it clearly worked very well. The years when a child is the most difficult to care for in terms of needing constant physical care, they were able to find people to consistently offer said care. And then when she was of an age, where, at the time one could expect a child to actually start being helpful around the house, she was taken by family who perhaps couldn't take an infant, or simply couldn't take an infant at the time that she was born.

Adoption could be different back then. It wasn't always official. And it often didn't happen at all, like in this case. I've seen children passed from one family member to another to another or even from neighbor to neighbor, many times in exchange for the child working for the family. I've seen an instance where older siblings had to stop attending school to care for the baby. Or children sent far from their family with a lot less contact than in this situation.

While very foreign sounding to our 2022 mindsets, it sounds like in this one case, the choices made by those involved resulted in a well-cared for baby/child who grew up happy, had regular contact with her family, was eventually reunited with her biological nuclear family, and who looked back fondly on her upbringing. And that's a lot more than many people can say---then or now.

Just Fyi there is so much more abuse in family homes. Are there bad foster parents out there, of course. There are so many great Foster homes that give children a place to grow and be loved and safe. People don’t tend to talk about them or all the sacrifices that Foster parents make. Just because a child is placed in Foster care or given up for adoption doesn’t mean they are going to be abused. There is so much abuse in parental homes, most of which goes wildly underreported and Birth parents have way more rights then kids and can continue the abuse. I too wouldn’t wish foster care on any child, it’s a horrible thing for them to go through, but we can’t leave kids in abusive and neglectful homes. I wish there was a better system.

I just read an article about this! Obviously a whole different time and we know better now...