Starve your kid or lose them. That’s quite a choice for a poor parent to make.

My late father grew up in an orphanage because my grandfather was too poor to care for 5 kids and a sick wife. My grandparents were able to take the kids home on Sundays though, so it wasn’t a situation where they yielded full custody. I’m not saying an orphanage was ideal, but it’s a shame that these days there is not the same kind of middle ground where kids can be cared for but still stay connected to their family. I guess that is too much of a social safety net for conservatives to tolerate.