#starlighthouse

There’s an interview with Molly Ringwald out that sort of explains who Aunt Bailey is.  In the cartoon, Mrs. Bailey is the caretaker of Starlight House. In the movie, Molly says Aunt Bailey is the MOTHER of Aja and Shana and adopts Kimber and Jerrica.   So, it’s not a foster home, and it sounds like Aja and Shana are her biological children.

As a person who aged out of the foster care system, this seriously pisses me off.  Anyone who reads my blog knows that adoption is a sore point for me and there is a misconception that foster care = adoption.

Also, if Kimber and Jerrica are Aunt Bailey’s nieces, then adoption would not happen.  Imagine both of your parents die. Your aunt is your legal guardian with all rights of a parent.  All adoption would do would be to give Jerrica and Kimber new birth certificates with Aunt Bailey’s name rather than Emmet and Jackie Benton and new last names. It would erase your parents, which is upsetting to kids.  It’s also pretty much unheard of for two middle class kids whose parents die to be in foster care long term.  The situation with Laura Holloway in the Jem cartoon would be more typical - kids waiting for a relative to show up .

This really makes no sense.  Why change something like this?  Is trying to be all modern and having the two little white girls as kids adopted from foster care rather than the minority, ethnic kids?