Becoming a foster parent had popped in and out of my mind for a long time. We talked about it often at home. His view was always "Too hard". How can you work out what it's going to be like?
What I've discovered is that fostering is really no harder than just about any other aspect of modern life. But it's a lot more rewarding than almost anything.
What happened to us was this.
A leaflet...
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
SHOPPING WITH A FOSTER CHILD. TRICKY
The grind of shopping is best done alone. I'm talking about essentials, not retail therapy, which is best with soul mates. The daily shopping for essentials is much more difficult with children, even more so with foster children, generally. You spend half the time explaining why you can't spend vast amounts on things they suddenly see and want.
Seems as though round every shelf corner, at the end...
Thursday, August 21, 2014
ARGUMENTS ABOUT FOSTERING
We argue at home about how to foster sometimes, the pair of us. Not often and not with daggers drawn. We argued about how to bring up our own children too. Isn't that normal parenting?
Normal parenting goes on all around us. We first see normal parenting from the moment we open our eyes after birth. We see it everywhere, not just in real life but as a theme in films and TV, books and plays.
In fostering...
Sunday, August 17, 2014
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS AND FOSTERING
Watched the end of a marathon race on TV. Interesting. 26 miles plus 365 yards. The extra 365 yards were tacked on when the Olympics were held in London and the King said that the finish line should be in front of his box, so they extended the distance by 365 yards to suit him. And it's stuck. Those extra 365 yards for no good reason must jar with all those athletes, after 26 miles, the original distance...
Sunday, August 03, 2014
DOES FOSTERING WORK?
In the past, if my memory is correct, almost everything that got done at work was done with two vague hopes; one, that it was worth doing, and two, that it got done properly. Then you moved on to the next thing. There wasn't much target and measurement at work or at least nowhere near as much as today. Not at work. School however was all about target and measurement. We number-stamped children as...