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Families: The Maynard Wards
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4192
Author:  jennifer [ Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Families: The Maynard Wards
The Maynards have quite a few wards over they years. In addition to Daisy, Primula and Robin in England they have the McDonald twins for four or five years, look out for Carola for her father, take in the three Richardsons, Erica Standish and Claire de Mabillion, plus keep an eye on Adrienne de Mabillion for Robin.

What do you think of the assorted wards? Is their inclusion in the family natural? What do you think of their interactions with the Maynard siblings and how they adapt to being part of such a large family?
Author:  Lolly [ Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
I like the way Robin is included into Joey's family. It seems a very natural inclusion given the close relationship between the two and it is nice to see the progression of Robin from 'school baby' (ugh!) to supportive friend when Jack is away at war.

Although I thought the introduction of Flora and Fiona into the Maynard family a little contrived I thought the relationship was presented in a realistic way - their loyalties always lie first with their real family, just as they are never quite absorbed into the Maynard family as such. I think their relationship is shown quite clearly as a fond guardian/ward relationship.

The way that Daisy and Primula are shunted over to Joey when Madge can't manage any more seems a little unfair and I always felt sorry for Primula who seems largely to be forgotten about.

After that, the absorption of a new ward into the elastic sided Maynard family just seems to become a plot device and, for me, quite often grates. Carola, not so much as it seems to be purely a matter of convenience, but from 'Ruey' on it just seems to be used as yet another way of showing Joey in her role as supermum!
Author:  Sugar [ Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Families: The Maynard Wards
jennifer wrote:
keep an eye on Adrienne de Mabillion for Robin


Adrienne Desmoines is her name
Author:  Alison H [ Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:44 pm ]
Post subject: 
Robin's inclusion seems quite natural - the way Ted leaves her with Madge to start with grates a bit, but from then on she becomes like a little sister to Joey. Daisy and Primula are members of the extended family - although I don't like the way they get shunted between the Maynards and the Russells -, Carola's dad is an old friend of Jack's and Adrienne sort of becomes Robin's responsibility, so it seems fairly natural that the Maynards should have some involvement with them. Fiona and Flora are effectively in the position of being wartime evacuees, so their moving in with the Maynards is natural in the context in which it occurs.

It gets rather silly with the others, though:

1. I appreciate that rules weren't as strict in the 1950s as they are now but I still can't believe that the authorities would just have let Joey and Jack go off with Claire, especially when they didn't even live in the country in which the train crash had occurred.

2. It is perfectly realistic that someone would take in the orphaned daughter of an old friend who'd appointed them as guardian in their will, but it's not really believable that Erica's mother would have appointed someone with whom she hadn't been in touch for over 20 years and didn't even have a contact address for as her daughter's guardian.

3. It seems very odd that someone would take on 3 teenagers whom they'd only just met :? .

It all just seems to be designed to show the Maynards as "super-parents" - we don't really see much family interaction, other than seeing Ruey as a friend of the triplets. And I'd love to know what Anna and Rosli had to say about it all!
Author:  JayB [ Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:56 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'm not sure how far Roger and Roddy Richardson considered themselves actually part of the Maynard family. In Joey & Co, Roger accepted their supervision chiefly for Ruey's benefit, and then only after Jack had spoken to him quite strongly. He wasn't far off leaving school, and once he'd left I recall Joey saying something to the effect that they didn't see much of him. Roddy had his future all planned out without reference to Jack or Joey. I get the impression that for them it was somewhere convenient to go for the holidays, and someone to take care of financial matters, rather than a real emotional bond.

As others have said, Robin living with Joey makes much more sense. Joey was a very young wife and mother, on her own while Jack was away. Robin provided companionship.

Daisy was quite a lot older than the other children Madge was responsible for; living with Jo, she had Robin, who was much closer to her in age, as a companion. And probably got more attention than she would have done at the Russells', where there were so many other children.
Author:  Elbee [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:30 am ]
Post subject: 
I had no problems accepting most of the wards, but Erica and Claire never seemed quite right, mainly for the reasons that Alison has already stated. Perhaps, though, that's because I didn't get to read the books in which they appear until I was grown up. It never occurred to me as a child that Daisy and Primula should have really been living with Madge rather than Joey.
Author:  claire [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:08 am ]
Post subject: 
I see the McDonalds as a 'if we have these two we won't have to have any of those terrible evacuees who may give the triplets accents' - then wars over, time to go home- rather than properly adopted wards into the family
Author:  Sunglass [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
claire wrote:
I see the McDonalds as a 'if we have these two we won't have to have any of those terrible evacuees who may give the triplets accents' - then wars over, time to go home- rather than properly adopted wards into the family


Oh, definitely. The McDonalds' stage-Scottish accents presumably, because they are considered charming and 'funny', don't count as potentially infectious, especially if the presence of the two girls precludes having some London evacuees with distressing Cockney speech billeted on Plas Gwyn. Though someone should write a drabble where the triplets start speaking like the Artful Dodger.

By a bit later in the series, though, I find myself thinking of Joey as a sort of Mia Farrow, picking up children on her travels and sort of incorporating them into her ever-elastic domain. Can anyone hazard a guess as to when precisely she has the most offspring, wards and associated figures under her roof and produce a rough figure? Anna must have been run ragged.
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:45 pm ]
Post subject: 
During the last Easter holiday before the series ends, she must have had in residence:

Her natural children (11)
The Richardsons (3)
Claire
Adrienne
Erica
Althea

That's 18.

The pattern starts very early on, though - Madge acquires Robin, Juliet and the 4 eldest Bettanys, then Daisy and Primula.
Author:  JS [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:19 pm ]
Post subject: 
I recall in Leader that Margot in particular is a bit miffed at the idea of having Melanie for a good chunk of the holidays. Do I remember a slightly hurt sounding Margot saying she and her sisters would like some time with their mother?? Which does seem reasonable. But then she said that Ruey was like one of the family by then.

Margot had also been packed away to Canada as well; in fact, the whole lot of them seemed to shift between different parts of the family in quite a fluid way. I wonder how they arranged paying for their keep etc?? I know when we left our dogs at my brother's and vice versa we provided the food! Did the same apply?
Author:  roversgirl [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:33 pm ]
Post subject: 
It's in Future that Margot makes a comment about wanting more time as a family. Furthermore, in that novel we also see Melanie being resentful towards Ruey, who has become a part of the family and they "have it out" on the lake where Ruey explains that she is a proper member of the family, not a visitor. I always felt the Richardsons settled in well - I guess I never had a problem with it as I was young when I read a lot of the books and thought how nice it was for everyone to be able to be adopted. :)

NB - edited as I can't type!
Author:  Travellers Joy [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
I loved that aspect of the books - Chalet and Abbey as well - as a child because I would dearly have loved to have been adopted into one of those families. (Joy Shirley's by preference since I was an Abbey girl before I discovered the Chalets.)
Author:  JS [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 4:11 pm ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
It's in Future that Margot makes a comment about wanting more time as a family.


oops, sorry.

Still interested to know who pays for the dog food (upkeep) however!
Author:  KB [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
JS wrote:
Still interested to know who pays for the dog food (upkeep) however!


I don't imagine they bothered too much about it, except during wartime when rationing was more of an issue. If you think about it, when Margot was with the Russells, Sybil was with the Maynards so no real problem there.

It might have been more of a problem when Jo first got married and had Robin, Daisy and Primula with her, but they would have been at school for a lot of the time and I doubt they would have paid any fees.
Author:  JayB [ Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:17 pm ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
when Margot was with the Russells, Sybil was with the Maynards so no real problem there.


Except there'd be no school fees to pay for Sybil at the CS, whereas presumably there were fees for Margot at La Sagesse. Who paid those, I wonder?
Author:  roversgirl [ Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:15 am ]
Post subject: 
Yes- i often wondered about who paid for what etc!what abou these big new girls' parties - they were expensive!
Author:  jennifer [ Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:58 am ]
Post subject: 
I figure Jack and Joey would have provided money for trans-atlantic travel, school fees, and some funds for clothing and other essentials, but that Jem and Madge would have covered food and daily upkeep, and that they would have left funds for clothing for Sybil.

Actually, it's fun to list the wards and the circumstances in order

- Younger foster sister and friend who has been in the care of the family for years (Robin)

- Non-blood nieces who have recently lost their mother, also with an extensive previous relationship (Daisy and Primula)

- Friends of a friend who desperately need a temporary home base during the war years, as all their family is either dead or away at war (Flora and Fiona)

- Daughter of an old college friend who needs someone to look out for her when she's at boarding school (Carola)

- Three teenagers with a negligent, mad scientist father that they meet on vacation and take legal guardianship of a few weeks later, who turn out to be distant relatives of Daisy's husband.

- Orphaned French girl who turns out to be a long-lost distant relative of Robin (see above) (Adrienne)

- An orphaned girl Joey has never heard of, whose mother, a brief acquaintance of Joey from vacation twenty years ago, has left her to Joey's guardianship without knowing where Joey lived. (Erica)

- The tragically orphaned daughter of French nobleman and his secret ballerina wife, who is taken home after a train wreck (Claire).

Basically, the wards from England and Guernsey are logical situations where someone whom Joey and Jack have a previous connection with needs help. The Swiss wards and adoptees come from progressively more casual and lunatic situations.
Author:  abbeybufo [ Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:00 am ]
Post subject: 
jennifer wrote:
Basically, the wards from England and Guernsey are logical situations where someone whom Joey and Jack have a previous connection with needs help. The Swiss wards and adoptees come from progressively more casual and lunatic situations.

Well expressed! :lol:
Author:  Kathy_S [ Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:09 am ]
Post subject: 
I have to agree. :roll: :lol:
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