BROTHERLY LOVE

 Our latest new foster child is in an okay place, and okay is great in fostering.

Apparently the Buddha said everyone who's ever lived has always had 83 problems apart from the person who tries to get rid of them all.

They have 84.

Latest addition is transitioning and going along well. It's his decision, his life. Maybe it's a mistake, maybe it isn't. People who get paid for their opinion, such as pundits and politicians, are piling in on the issue, often for their own benefit.

He gets on with the one thing everyone owns in a free country; being who he is.

When a foster child arrives the balance of the family home changes more than the average event, except obviously a birth or a death. Or redundancy. Or bankrupcy. Or prison. Or illness. Or mental health or dementia.

Come to think of it, fostering is barely a wrinkle.

And none of the aforementioned shock-horrors come with a guarenteed Social Worker at your side. 

On your case.

Someone who's got your back, someone who's (to use an Eastenders perennial) "Always there for you."

So; middle foster child has been in a grotty mood on and off since school broke up.

We ask if child is okay and just get grunts.

We're used to grunts. Our own kids could grunt for England.

Blue Sky's SW shows up regularly to make sure everything's okay.

The SW had a 10 minute chat alone with child.

Reported back to us what the child said, with professional discretion as ever.

So: child lent a friend £8 and is having trouble getting it back.

Child was not explicitly invited to a gathering at a house the child had previously been invited to for a previous gathering, but if, the child learned, IF they are invited they'd need to be able to offer transport (me) and give a car-load of others a ride there and a ride home - at midnight.

BTW, 'midnight' to teenagers translates as 1.45am.

Child is feeling not sufficiently loved.

The SW was brilliant. Told child it wasn't fair, that child deserved better, but hey; life's not fair and people let you down.

Told US we were doing a fantastic job.

I wondered out loud if the child was feeling sidelined by the new child who has just arrived and has high-profile needs. Social worker thought there was maybe something in that, but generally, the child told the SW, they had clicked and were feeling brotherly.

Wow.

Onwards and upwards!