This is a series of blogs on adoption references in well-known TV shows or books that our children will likely come across. The last few blogs have focused on the TV show Little House on the Prairie. You can find the first blog in the series by clicking here.
In the fourth season episode “Be My Friend”, Laura finds messages in a bottle from a desperate girl who is isolated in the woods with her fanatical father, from whom she has concealed her pregnancy. Charles and Laura find the baby, whom Laura cares for while Charles inquires of the minister in a nearby town and locates the probably parents.
The young birthfather is portrayed very sympathetically. He doesn’t know of the baby at first, but when he finds out he tells his father himself (although the minister offers to) and goes to find his girlfriend and bring her to his parents’ house. He wants to marry her.
In a scary part, the birthmother’s father allows the cabin to burn down, planning to burn himself and his daughter with it, believing “the devil has won”. He is clearly shown to be deluded, by the minister himself as well as Mr. Ingalls.
However, he birthmother clearly states to Mrs. Ingalls,
“I know what we did was wrong.”
Thus the episode does not make light of premarital relations, but does give children a sympathetic portrayal of birthparents and an understanding of the possible difficulties some of them may have faced from society or even from their own families.
In the fifth season, the Ingalls family adopts Albert, who has been living on the streets since he ran away from an orphanage. In the episode “Fagin”, some jealousy issues arise for Laura, who believes her dad has the boy he’s always wanted.
In the sixth season, the episode “Family Tree” begins with a school assignment that poses a dilemma for many adopted children. Albert asks the Ingalls to formally adopt him. This leads his biological father to learn Albert’s whereabouts. He wants Albert back, but Albert realizes he just wants him to work for him and gets him to agree to his adoption by the Ingalls.
In a later episode, “May we Make them Proud”, Albert briefly runs away from home in anguish over a tragedy his actions have caused the family. He runs to his late birthfather’s home (finding his address by sneaking into the judge’s (adoption files). Of course his family and neighbors come after him and he returns home to Walnut Grove.
Please see these related blogs:
Book Review: The Girls Who Went Away
Book Review: Lucy’s Family Tree