Were you surprised at the amount of freedom the girls had living in the home?

Were you surprised at the amount of freedom the girls had living in the home? What did you think about their smoking and going to local stores and even driving off like Laura did to see friends?

Yes, I was somewhat surprised. But I'm glad at least they got to have some semblance of a teenage girls life. I was happy to see that they were well fed. And back then they had no idea that smoking was bad for the baby so hard to criticize them for that.

I have one of those yes and no answers. Yes, I was surprised at first, but then I thought a home for "unwed mothers" that I saw in a Southern state many years ago. It was set apart from the small stores, schools, and middle class homes of that area because it had a lot of land around it. But it was not surrounded by barbed wire and guards, just as Laura's home did not. Even regular schools were not as gated and guarded back then. Regular neighborhoods did not all have security cameras and video doorbells. Life was different in many ways. Maybe that little bit of freedom at Laura's home helped to prevent girls from running away. What PKH said above about cigarettes and knowledge of smoking's effect upon one's health is true. Think about vintage cigarette ads showing men dressed as doctors recommending certain brands.

I guess if I'd given any thought to it I would have expected the girls to be isolated - staying in their rooms, waiting to give birth, not a lot of stimulation. So yes, I was surprised they socialized. I wasn't surprised about the smoking; everyone smoked back then!

Yes. I had seen the movie, Philomena and the Magdalene sisters. The young women there were used as slave labor in addition to being deprived of their babies. It seemed that this home just wanted the money from the parents and perhaps proceeds from happy, adoptive families.

I was surprised, but with regards to smoking, my mother smoked pregnant with me and my sister, but back then no one knew how bad it was for the the baby.

I was surprised. Expected them to be keep in isolation, hopefully learning on how take care of the baby upon its arrival. Also expected a continuation of their education. As for the smoking, it was excepted at that time of our history before the public was aware of its damage to our bodies.

I wasn't surprised that all the girls had jobs at the home. I was happy they got to have some freedom to just be teenage girls.

I was surprised the girls did not have more structured time doing chores at the house and that there was not some sort of time set aside for required schoolwork. I don’t know whether pregnant women in the late 1960’s had access to prenatal classes, but I was surprised that there were not any classes about what to expect during labor.

I was surprised at all the things the girls got away with considering the strictness of the rules. But the home wasn't a prison, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised that they had the freedom to go to the store across the street, etc. The smoking probably is the least surprising thing as they didn't know back then what smoking could do to a fetus.

I was surprised about the amount of freedom the girls had. However I wonder if it was because the reasons that the girls were there in the first place was incentive enough to not worry about them running away. Under the circumstances it was the only safe place they had.

I was surprised. They still had chores to do and schoolwork. I too remember Philomena, where they were just shy of being used as slacpve labor. This almost seemed like a reprieve from the cobstantjudgement of her parents.