An interview study of 11 children and their parents was carried out in connection with a more comprehensive retrospective review of the records concerning children who in 1990 had been placed outside their homes. The aim of the study was to describe how children and parents experience the process of placement in order to adjust placement criteria if necessary. At the time of interview the age of the children was 12-19 years (mean 16.2 years), there were five boys and six girls. Five of the children were still placed outside the home. All the children had an intellectual understanding of the reason why they did not live at home. However, none of them had reached a corresponding emotional understanding and clarification. It was found that there were two different ways of managing separation. Those children who experienced attuned separation seemed to manage best. In these cases the problems of separation were worked through by parents and children. Some of these parents also expressed the view that their child was not really placed outside the home, but was still implicitly a member of the family. The opposite was true in non-attuned separations. The authors recommend a revision of the criteria on which the social authorities base their evaluation as to where and when a placement should be made--especially concerning children exposed to non-attuned separation.