It's raining. It's rained about 6 out of every 7 days since the schools broke up. Thank you God, or the Jet stream, or whatever. Thank you sooooooo much.
 |
SCHOOL SUMMER HOLIDAYS
If you're a foster carer you don't need anyone to remind you that school summer holidays run for six weeks. Like lots of carers I got a baptism on the challenge of the school summer holidays with my own children. But caring for looked after children during this marathon is different gravy, as they say up north.
You get behind in everything, you notice the fridge needs defrosting and cleaning. How come you notice? Because it's empty, so you can see the state it's in. You've been serving frozen food since the Olympics ended. Why? Ever tried doing a supermarket run with bored children?
8.10am Still raining.
...had to break from blogging as youngest woke up and needs me full-on. Watching Spongebob and typing this.
When your own children are young you can plug into a network of other parents with children the same age, who all know each other either because they're family, or friends, or schoolmates. You go places, the park or a beach, or just turn up at each other's homes.
When you're looking after other people's children that network isn't there, which is why Blue sky try their socks off to give us an alternative plug-in. I've made use of their schedule of activities, and if you haven't yet you don't know what you're missing, it's a Godsend.
RANT
Obviously there are still days on end when you're on your own, and there's other things that have to be done besides entertaining and amusing bored children who are already getting spooked by "Back To School" commercials for backpack/stationary deals which make me very angry because it only cranks up the children's urge to make the most of their freedom.
9.11am Still raining.
...am finishing this post as need to get to 9.50am Specsavers for appointment with child who only needs specs to watch TV...(how does that work?) The plan for this morning was to go swimming, but one child has covered upper torso in felt tip drawings which might be an issue in the pool. So to compensate for having to cancel swimming, allowed ice cream for breakfast.
Ice cream for breakfast.
Very bad foster carer.
The Secret (Very Bad) Foster Carer
Just finished reading this, and, with a big sigh of relief, realised that we (as a fostering family) are not unusual at all, thanks for your candidness and humour, your insight is exceptional and has been helpful for me to realise that maybe we are getting it right quite a lot of the time.We foster for a local authority in Wales, have had 28 children in 8 years, and currently have 3 (looked after) teenage girls and one of our own.....oddly enough, with little conflict, we count our blessings daily, they are all going to be wonderful people! It doesnt get much better in my experience.
ReplyDeleteThanks snapdragon. Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job. I believe that enjoying the good stuff is absolutely key; the children recognise this and it feeds the good in them to discover they aren't an outright pain; that they can make other people feel good, and that's a nice feeling.
ReplyDelete