Although this blog (one of a series on adoption storylines in the Little House on the Prairie television show) focuses on season eight, the two episodes (“Growing Pains” and “Uncle Jed”) which continue the story of the new Ingalls family members James and Cassandra were discussed in the season seven blog.
In the season eight opening two-parter, “The Reincarnation of Nellie”, Mrs. Oleson is devastated when Nellie and Percival move to New York. Dr. Baker suggests adopting a ten-year-old girl to cheer her up! Nels and Harriet visit an orphanage and look the children over. Harriet falls for one who looks just like Nellie..but unfortunately is even more manipulative and unkind to others. Nancy tries to get sympathy from lying to her new teacher in Walnut Grove about being abandoned by her birth mother, but eventually learns a lesson (sort of) from the townspeople.
Needless to say, most doctors and counselors today would recommend working through grief(whether for a child who died, who grew up and moved away, or for a biological child that won’t be had) before adopting a child. In this episode Nancy’s wild behavior is fed by Mrs. Oleson’s need to have her be like spoiled Nellie.
It is interesting to see that Nels Oleson is able to take a firmer hand with Nancy than he was with his older two children, perhaps because he’d seen the consequences of his wife’ s spoiling and permissive ways.
A season nine episode features Nancy’s jealous feelings when Nellie (the older sister she’s never met) comes home to visit. (I never saw this episode, but I’d love to.)
Also in season eight, the episode “A Faraway Cry” features a twist on the baby-switch theme. Caroline responds to her best friend’s appeal for help. She and Dr. Baker travel to a mining camp suffering from an influenza outbreak. Caroline’s friend dies in childbirth. Caroline feels that fulfilling her promise to her friend means not letting the baby go to her friend’s abusive husband, so she brings the baby to an unknowing new mother whose child did not survive the birth.
Although many switched-baby stories seem farfetched, I am reminded that when I was first inquiring about adoption, a woman who worked in Guatemala told me that when someone had twins, they were sometimes told that one twin had died and that twin was given to another couple.
Please see this related blog: