ABSTRACT
More reliable evidence as to the economic circumstances of the Islington homes comes from the assessment of families for billeting payments. In a good many cases the mother described the initiative as coming from the child, and in a few of these there was evidence that the child had in fact left the foster home and found his own way home. In order to discover how far the mothers’ own nervousness or loneliness entered into her description of the child’s homesickness, a separate analysis was made of thirteen cases in which the main cause of the child’s return was attributed to the child’s fretting or desire to come home. Knowledge of human nature would suggest that parents looking for an excuse to bring their children home would tend to blame foster parents for not giving them the proper kind of care.
