# Fairy tales with good adoptive (or step) parents **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700 "2012-05-03T00:29:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/21 "2012-05-04T01:42:31Z")
The famous Japanese fairy tale “Peach Boy” (“Momotaro” in Japanese) has an elderly childless couple adopting the eponymous hero as an infant. As far as I can tell, they were good parents to him. ETA: Ooh, someone made a [list](http://www.sisterschoice.com/tradadopt.html), though it doesn’t seem to have Peach Boy on it. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/22 "2012-05-04T01:51:25Z")
Thumbelina? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/23 "2012-05-04T02:23:20Z")
Good adoptive parents from non-fairytales: Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert (Anne of Green Gables) James Alden (Boxcar Children) Alec Campbell (Eight Cousins) Abigail Tillerman (Homecoming) ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/24 "2012-05-04T04:27:29Z")
Oh, man, the Dope is awesome! Arthur/Ector and …maybe Thumbelina (on googling, not entirely sure she had good adoptive parents exactly?) are exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for, although I’m happy to get non-fairy-tale/mythic literature as well. Thank you! More? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/25 "2012-05-04T07:14:05Z")
Again as a non-fairy-tale story: Noel Streatfeild wrote several books for children that feature good adoptive or foster parents. The one I’m familiar with, _Ballet Shoes,_ has three orphaned girls who are almost “collected” by an eccentric fossil collector, who then disappears on an expedition for years. The girls are raised by the great-niece he himself had been a kind if inept foster parent to, and her nurse, who stays on even when the money runs out and she isn’t paid any more, because she cares so deeply for the girls. They are also assisted by a number of other kindly adults who come to live as boarders in the family’s enormous house. (Well, one of the girls isn’t technically an orphan. She is given up by her impoverished mother, a dancer. She comes to the house with a note that concludes: “Her name is Posy. Unfortunate, but true.”) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/26 "2012-05-04T08:00:33Z")
[The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnfoder.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse_Gullfaxi_and_the_Sword_Gunnfoder) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/27 "2012-05-05T04:12:10Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Good adoptive parents from non-fairytales: > Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert (Anne of Green Gables) > James Alden (Boxcar Children) > Alec Campbell (Eight Cousins) > Abigail Tillerman (Homecoming) And the supervillain from _Despicable Me_, although it takes him awhile to come around. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/28 "2012-05-05T05:16:21Z")
Joseph. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/29 "2012-05-05T05:40:35Z")
If we turn to Ancient Greece I can think of an example or two. Oedipus has decent adoptive parents. Too bad things worked out the way they did with his birth parents. Heracles had an evil stepmother, but seemed to get along well enough with his stepfather Amphitryon. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/30 "2012-05-05T15:50:42Z")
Captain Hook, in _Hook._ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/31 "2012-05-05T16:04:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Oedipus has decent adoptive parents. Too bad things worked out the way they did with his birth parents. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru did a good job raising the kid – not a blood relative, even – who helped that crazy old wizard rescue the beautiful princess from the black knight. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/32 "2012-05-05T16:24:46Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Captain Hook, in _Hook._ (um… spoilers.) I would be willing to consider this, but it’s highly debatable on the face of it. If he were actually a decent step-parent/foster parent, he would have tried harder with the girl, instead of leaving her locked in a tower like Rapunzel. Granted she wasn’t being very cooperative, but that’s on the adult to mend, not the kid. He was nice to Jack, but that wasn’t really for Jack’s benefit. I would be willing to grant that he became fond of Jack over time, but that could also be an outreach of his narcissism, seeing Jack as a little version of himself, which would be the only thing Hook \*could \*actually love. But casting him as a “good” foster parent is a stretch - especially since the kids were \*kidnapped \*for the express purpose of forcing their father to come to fairyland and do battle for them, not because Hook had some octogenarian urge to have kids all of a sudden. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/33 "2012-05-05T19:49:02Z")
_Awesome_. Joseph, ha! And Oedipus and Luke… that’s again exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. And I had never heard of the Gullfaxi/Gunnfoder one, that’s great! I do appreciate the non-myth-fairy ones too, though… I need to go pick up my copy of _Ballet Shoes_ again, and reread the Tillerman saga… ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/34 "2012-05-05T19:58:43Z")
Roald Dahl’s Matilda? Maybe not formally adopted, but her ‘happy ending’ is being fostered by someone much nicer than her birth parents. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/35 "2012-05-06T17:08:27Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > But casting him as a “good” foster parent is a stretch - especially since the kids were \*kidnapped \*for the express purpose of forcing their father to come to fairyland and do battle for them, not because Hook had some octogenarian urge to have kids all of a sudden. Pick, pick, pick… he listened to Jack, he never lied to him (the speech about how his parents were happier and had more fun before they had kids was freaking AMAZING), he went to his ball game… sure, there was the felony kidnapping, but the way he treated him and cared for him AFTER the kidnapping is miles ahead of the way step- or adoptive-parents are portrayed in your typical fairy tale. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/36 "2012-05-06T17:24:56Z")
Not a fairy tale, but in the Disney version of _ **Hercules** _, Amphitryo and his wife were wonderful adoptive parents… not a cuckold and a wife who got pregnant while playing around with Zeus. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/37 "2012-05-06T17:36:44Z")
Chiron the centaur. Pharoah’s daughter, who found Moses in the bulrushes. The Lady of the Lake, who raised Lancelot. The abbess who raised Galahad. Tom Sawyer’s aunt. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2014, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/38 "2014-01-01T08:26:16Z")
The dwarf Regin who brought up Sigurd at least until [spoiler] He developed gold fever and tried to kill Sigurd for Fáfnir’s hoard [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2014, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/39 "2014-01-01T09:11:39Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > The problem with Cinderella is the father died shortly after marrying the stepmother and bringing her and the daughters into his house. In the original versions he is still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Brynhildr\_Budladottir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynhildr_Budladottir)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2014, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700/40 "2014-01-01T10:08:12Z")
Also from the sagas: Thord from _Laxdaela saga_, the foster father of Olaf Hoskuldsson (Olaf The Peacock) Heimir, Brynhild’s foster father (and later also her daughter Aslaug’s foster father) in _Volsunga saga_ and _Ragnars saga loðbrokar_. Regin (again) Helgi and Hróar’s foster father in _Hrolfs saga kraka._ Snorri Goði in _Laxdaela saga_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fairy-tales-with-good-adoptive-or-step-parents/620700.md?page=3)