Kids like to look cool, I was the same. Foster children are no different, why should they be?I took our eldest - "Alicia" - to a gathering at Blue Sky for foster parents with older kids. My social worker had told me discreetly that some teenage foster children become a bit introverted and tend to spend a lot of time in their room instead of with friendship groups.Easy to see why. When a child...
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Saturday, February 15, 2025
A GAME OF SARDINES
Going back a few years we had a young lady stay with us, Nicky. I've touched on her story once before In the blog, but something came up yersterday which jogged my memory of her.She'd had a terrible childhood. Both her parernts had learning difficulties and had profound hearing loss. Her father was serving 10 years in prison for a crime against another member of the family, that's all I'll say...
Friday, February 14, 2025
I'M NOT WASHED UP!
Fostering is all about helping a child from outside your family feel comfortable in your home.How you do this depends on a) understanding your own home, and b) understanding the foster child.It's all about working out where the child fits.I want to flag up the task of WASHING UP.Age plays a huge part in the whole integration thing, as does personality.Then there's the matter of how much damage,...
Saturday, February 01, 2025
MEALTIME MATTERS
Mealtimes can be complicated in fostering. Food in every form is SO important to every foster child I've ever had. I can't overstate how valuable a piece of kit that food can be in the foster parents' toolbox.Nobody enjoys feeling hungry, and it seems that most- if not all - children who come into care have suffered all sorts of deprivations in the food department.Back in the day when I started...