The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the nature of Finnish child welfare as a strategy of social control. It applies Michel Foucault's history of the present' approach to illuminate what is hidden or taken for granted in the present practice and discourse. The article problematizes child welfare in the present and illuminates its current formations by recourse to the past. Since Finnish child welfare has developed in connection with the Anglo- American and Central European discourses of the field, the provided insights are also transferable to international contexts in the contemporary conditions of governance.