13
Jun
2020

Foundlings

I’ve been fascinated by the Long Lost Family TV programmes on people abandoned as babies – one was found in a wooden box with two tins of corned beef – who grew up in loving foster or adoption homes and yet were troubled by not knowing the circumstances of their births. Rejection as your first experience of the world must be hard to deal with. It follows you into adulthood, like a sick dog and can’t be left behind. I was struck by the importance with which the moment of separation from their mother needed to be remembered; one, wrapped in a pink shawl, must, she felt have been loved. Another, revisiting the site of the public toilets where she was left, could visualize her mother crossing the road with a bundle in her arms and felt her mother must have heard her crying several streets away after she left her. Heartbreaking stuff. They all needed to know that the reason they were abandoned was not their fault, but to do with poverty and family circumstances. Fathers rarely got a mention in the programme, neither did the word ‘love’ in relation to them.

As a one-time foster parent myself and mother of three now adult children, I feel more and more the importance of biological connectedness. That recognition, based on scent? body language? appearance? enables people to ‘click’ even when they had been strangers until they met. There’s some aspect to this that needs further exploring. With the abandoned babies, that connection is cast aside, but we have no idea yet what the consequences might be.

10 Responses

  1. maryjane

    It saddens me to see abandoned children, it can be devastating for children involved. Babies are innocent are should be treated with love

  2. AJ

    I sometimes couldn’t understand why people would leave babies behind. Yes it’s due to poverty, and a host of issues are things that couldn’t be avoided, but in some instances, these abandoned babies are just simply unwanted mistakes that they need to get rid of. And it’s very tragic and breaks my heart. If people wanted to give their babies a wonderful future, they really should think not to get one. They are only destroying another innocent human’s life in ways one shouldn’t need to go through for the rest of his or her life.

  3. Wilson Jake

    Well, alot of people are looking for this gift of the womb while some carelessly dump them. I just wish all this babes fine genuine love

  4. Paul

    Mothers should do better by taking care of their babies whether it is convenient or not.it is the duty of parents to do this

  5. Oyeyipo Oladele

    To be a mother isn’t something easy. So be proud of yourself by keeping what you have safe.

  6. Danielle M

    It´s very sad to hear about babies abandoned, I try to imagine the circumstances that make feel mothers that abandoning their babies is a good option.

  7. Prince

    Heartbroken when I hear about abandoned children. Nothing pains more than knowing you mother doesn’t want you. So painful

  8. Meldred Judith

    I can’t imagine the loneliness and sadness felt by these children. The thoughts in their heads what their parents looked like and the love they must have felt with them if they’re not left. It’s sad to imagine the emptiness that they are feeling.

  9. AMAN

    Being a mother is not easy as it looks. Being a teenager, I have always seen my mom’s struggle she does to make everything possible for me. And, of course babies should be cared more.

  10. Karen

    No child should have to be introduced to the world like this. Adults who do this need to be punished dearly, GEESH!!!

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