I can sympathize with the idea of swapping out children at that age. It is difficult to be objective with your own and sometimes the administration of discipline is a confused and disruptive thing. Conflict between the parents is common with Mother or Father having differing opinions regarding discipline. Manipulation by the teen is quickly learned and often used.

Forgetting about the pre-teen children,(barbaric,unthinkable), the practice for teens seems similar to the modern idea of sending boys to the military to become a man. This practice is no longer common. Sometimes it worked and sometimes not but either way the military no longer wastes time with misfits. Difficult cases are simply sent home these days.

In an age where being apprenticed to a craftsman was an essential part of the education of most youth, it is no wonder these practices caught on. It only makes sense; you not only learned a trade, but you learned how to survive on your own, away from home: sink or swim. In the insular world of the medieval village, going away was not only a part of one’s education, a personal rite of passage, it also allowed relationships and connections between families to be established in distant towns. In Britain, in particular, many youngsters were sent away to sea. I have a feeling a pre-teen who survived that experience came back well able to handle himself.

I have heard that “fostering” was common during the middle ages, especially among the second and third sons of the nobility, or excess girls. (If you had a lot of daughters, coming up with dowries could be a problem, and ladies-in-waiting and household help were always in high demand.) Remember, in those days, women made all the clothes, by hand. They were an economic asset to any household. And boys were farm hands, always in short supply at plowing, planting and harvest time.

When I was growing up, many troublesome youths were expected to go into the armed forces if they couldn’t fit in at home, or if they kept on getting into trouble with the law. Often, it was the only alternative to jail–or a shotgun wedding!

“The Army made a man out of him.”