Scene From Babyland

If you were raised on the Cabbage Patch phenomenon, you will love taking your little ones to visit Babyland General Hospital, just outside Atlanta, GA, where you can take your child on a truly magical Cabbage Patch experience.

A visit to the hospital is so much more than a stop by your local toy store.  For one, the hospital is a sprawling mansion set on 650 beautiful acres in the North Georgia Mountains.  The hospital has been voted one of the Top Ten Toylands by the Travel Channel, and admission to the hospital is free.

Unlike a toy store, the hospital is impeccably themed.  Kids visiting the grounds are immersed in the theme of a hospital and adoption center.  Workers dressed as nurses walk the halls patting newborn “babies,” burping them, and changing diapers.  Preemie babies are monitored in special rooms with special medical devices keeping them strong.  

The most exciting part of the tour is a visit to Mother Cabbage, a patch of cabbage that lives beneath a magical crystal tree.  Throughout the day, announcements are made for doctors to be on call as a birth is about to happen, giving children and their parents a chance to head to Mother Cabbage to see a live birth.  The “birth” is actually a doll popping its head out of a cabbage on the floor, but the staff would never make light of this phenomenon, as the new child is checked over by doctors.  

Here is the best part: it is at this point that the babies are named.  Your child can call out their favorite name of choice and the doctor chooses his favorite.  After naming and a brief physical exam, the babies are taken to the nurses to be weighed and measured.  

After perusing the rows and rows of babies waiting to be adopted, your child can choose the child they would like to take home.  At the adoption center, the papers are drawn, your adoption fee is accepted, and you get to take your new little one home.

To an outsider, a visit to Babyland General Hospital may be a bit strange.  But to a mom and her excited child getting swept up into a world of imagination, the trip is nothing but a great memory.

Babyland General Hospital is open Monday – Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sundays from  10 a.m.-5 p.m.

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photo: jproteus