WHAT'S CHRISTMAS?

There are certain times of the year when thoughts about what to do with a spare bedroom are higher in the mind than other times. The onset of summer for example, when people wonder if signing up for Airbnb will pay towards a holiday. They get to go to Morecambe for a week and people who are fed up with living in Morecambe can get away from it all in a place which the homeowners want to get away from... Another...

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THE BALLAD OF BERT

Ryder, our newest foster child, came home from school and asked if there is a King called "When Says". I said: "Eh?" She said that they'd been taught that he was a good King but he didn't look out the window much. In fact the last time he looked out he saw the face of Steven. I won't reveal yet, you might have guessed already anyway, but it turned out that there was nothing wrong with Ryder's reading...

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CHRISTMAS AND FOSTERING

There's a multitude of experiences that make fostering one of the best things you can do. There are a multitude of little moments; There's the first moment a foster child calls you 'mum' or 'dad' (their real parents will always be their real parents, but sometimes they choose to call me mum and that's for them - and it makes me feel proud). There's the moment they refer to your house as 'home',...

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BUGS AND FOSTERING HIGHS

Winter brings a curious high in fostering. It's going on upstairs in our house today, started this morning. One of our foster kids, Ryder, has a cold. It's a proper cold too, not an exaggerated one - you know; the show-business coughing and blowing of the nose when there's nothing up there... No, not this time, Ryder is proper poorly. And very, VERY happy. In fact it's a joy to see and now that...

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GENDER ISSUES AND FOSTERING

One of the challenges for Foster Carers is when there's not much in our own personal experiences that are of much use in our fostering of today's children. I've met a few carers who themselves had been fostered, that's a start. But the world just keeps changing so fast, so very fast, that the things that my generation of kids had to worry about at home and at school and outside the chip shop (you...

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SUPPORT MEETING 2

So, (see previous post) how did things pan out for Sue and Angie? Before I tell it's important to reiterate that support meetings depend on the confidence of all attending. Foster parents need to be able to talk openly amongst each other about things happening in their fostering world and that means they don't want to have to worry that anyone might take something out of context or be misquoted.  This...

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BLUE SKY SUPPORT 1

I popped into a Blue Sky support meeting a couple of weeks back and (as usual) something interesting came up. These meetings are a chance for foster carers to get together and chew the fat of fostering. There are usually some social workers who join in, but it's mostly our platform.  Sometimes foster carers need to have a therapeutic whinge. Other times they need to share triumphs and achievements.  We...

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PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

There's always something new to think about when you've a foster child in your care. The latest thing in our house is an ongoing one and it's not going to go away. Each day brings something new on the same tack. Our eldest foster child is starting out on the road to independence. This afternoon he messaged me on his way home from school that he was going straight to a mate's house to chill. That...

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FAMILY TRADITIONS AND FOSTERING

Our eldest foster child, is now on his way to being one of the family - as much as he wishes to be. It's not a good idea to force the issue, actually you can't, they either sign up or keep their distance or most often find a place somewhere in between. Their preferred place in their foster family is their right. What makes me think he's signing up? Good question. You'll laugh, I suspect, it almost...

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WISE SOCIAL WORKERS

Eldest foster child is going through a tough time. He's part of our family now, it hurts to see him sad. It's his real family that's the problem. No matter how embedded a foster child becomes in his or her foster home, their real family's circumstances loom over them like a dark cloud threatening a downpour. All foster children have one single big thing in common; the fact that they've been taken...

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FOSTERING BOO-BOO

Egad, the shops are filling up with Christmas stuff and we're still barely into Autumn. Barely Autumn and yet I've already made my first Christmas blooper. It wasn't a howler, more like an oversight. I wasn't concentrating at the time. What happened was this; Last Saturday I did an early-morning big shop at the supermarket. A long list. I ended up at the till with a full trolley and started loading...

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THE ULTIMATE 'EXTREME' PLEASURE?

Fostering can take over your life, you have to keep it in perspective. Mind, in my case I find it so absorbing I don't mind it filling my day. Take last Sunday; the whole house went trampolining. Everyone except me. I was excused on the grounds of having a scratchy throat and the slight snivels. I find that colds don't come to a head in me these days, maybe I'm too busy to be crock. Nevertheless...

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