Foster Parenting: The Inside Scoop A Four-Part Series by Diane Goodemote, Director of Quality Assurances and Compliance

05/22/20

Am I Cut Out for This?

Raising children is often a lot harder than what new parents expect. This is true regardless of how many books they read or the research they did before a child entered their life. Many parents also find great joy; an unexplainable fulfillment while on the parenthood journey as well.

Foster parenting – isn’t really much different.

There are obvious differences between biologically having 9 months to prepare for a new child and raising the child from birth and observing their milestones along the way to having a child placed in your home just a few hours after receiving a phone call.

There are many opinions about foster children, some of which are not necessarily based on fact, but rather feeling. For instance, some may feel that a foster child’s DNA or age would make said child difficult to foster. On the surface, that may be the initial feeling; but, many of the challenges experienced in fostering go back to the reason we need foster care to begin with. Foster care exists because abuse and neglect exist. We at Child and Family Charities have found that rather than DNA or age, it is abuse and neglect that have the significant impact on children in their most important developmental years.

Often times, even the most prepared parent has pushed research aside and had to rely on life experiences to know how to respond when raising children. Fostering – isn’t really much different. Child and Family Charities acknowledges that individuals and families considering foster parenting have a lot of questions, fears and even unresolved trauma in their own life that make the decision to foster something to not be taken lightly. From the moment someone makes an inquiry about fostering, we provide them with resources, education and information to guide the potential foster parent on the journey towards licensing. In the process, the potential parent is provided topic-specific training on real-life situations that are faced as one becomes a foster parent. Additionally, the foster parent will continue to be provided resources, support and mentors to rely on as the foster parent becomes part of a unique and amazing village of foster families.

Can you do this? Yes, you can!

If you are willing to learn, be trained on how to raise children who have been abused and neglected and can meet the minimum state requirements to obtain a foster license, then yes, you are cut out for this! Not everyone is – and we recognize that too. We offer free, no-obligation orientation sessions twice per month. If this works out for you, or even if you should realize that maybe this isn’t the journey for you, you may know others that would be a perfect fit to be a foster parent. We ask you to encourage them to consider taking the journey with us. Spreading the word creates more opportunities for the possibility of providing another child in need with a safe and loving home environment to recover, heal and thrive.

Will you join us? If not, will you share our message? Thank you!