This is an absolutely fascinating documentary. Could you imagine living like this? I would have absolutely loved to grow up like this…

WHERE THE WILD KIDS ARE
BBC Radio 4, Documentary
Listen to the archived program

In 1972, six groups of parents embarked on a ten-year experiment that involved them “pooling” their children ? 16 of them. Since none of the children now “belonged” to any of the parents they all took the same surname ? Wild ? and moved between homes on a rota basis. It was the sort of thing people did in the immediate post-hippy years, experimenting with social structures in a bid to come up with Utopia. Gerry Kennedy tracks them all down.

The early 1970s saw numerous experiments in alternative ways of living, but few as intriguing as a group of communes whose members decided that the children would not be raised just by their natural parents, but collectively. To reinforce this, and since none of the children “belonged” to any of the parents they all took the same surname ? Wild ? and moved between homes on a rota basis.

Gerry Kennedy tracks down the Wild kids to see how they turned out.