I HOPE YOU GET MOMENTS LIKE THIS

I had a fantastic fostering experience recently, I had to let the dust settle on it before mentioning it here. I met a foster child who had been with us years before, and I hadn't seen or heard anything about the child for all that time. He was a boy then, he's a young man now. I was at a fostering function, there were three hundred people there, foster children and foster parents. One of...

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HOW TO START FOSTERING

I've always found the ancient saying "Even a thousand mile journey begins with the first step" annoying. Nowadays a thousand mile journey is about the equivalent of going to the Seychelles, and it would begin with a ride to the airport. Or some injections.  With fostering, people give it a lot of thought before the watershed moment of getting in touch. Quite right, it's a big thing no mistake....

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THE THING I GET WRONGEST (IN A GOOD WAY, HOPEFULLY)

I think the thing I find hardest to keep in mind is that the job is to get your foster children back to their real home. It's what fostering is all about. Looking after someone else's child while the someone elses' of this world get their act together. Then when they are straightened out, ease their child back to them. The thing that ought to make it easy to remember is that foster children want...

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FOSTERING FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

When you foster, with Blue Sky anyway, you get invited to regular training sessions. I was a bit reluctant at first, never liked school, and anyway, if I need training, I thought to myself, why did they hire me? Other half stepped in and pointed out that in-service training is the norm almost everywhere nowadays. It's done to keep employees abreast of new ideas. I liked that. Cutting edge...

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FOSTERING AND MARRIAGE

My marriage has never been in any serious trouble, at least not as far as I'm aware. One or two trips to the doldrums, no casualties though. I put it like that because although you can get close to someone, you can't read their mind. You can't BE the other person, get into their skin. If my partner in life has ever had big doubts they've come and gone. I'm 99.9% sure there aren't any doubts at this...

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THE INTENSITY OF FOSTERING

I heard that old chestnut again today "Life's not a sprint it's a marathon" I don't agree. For one thing sprints are more interesting than marathons, and life is actually a succession of sprints. Being a child is a rush from one year to the next. Love and marriage is a dash to the line.  The world of work is one starting gun after another, anyone who thinks the tape is strung out for when you're...

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