There are plenty of people who consider fostering for various reasons but the two main driving factors most people have in common is either making sure vulnerable children have a safe and warm house or its for the money.
Regardless of what your reasons are for fostering they will be put to the test. this comes following a conversation I had with a foster carer who happens to be a very close friend of mine. The family fostered a vulnerable teenager, they were really willing to help the child and make them part of the family.
When the child arrived they had the usual ‘honeymoon’ period where the child was really nice polite and quiet. After a couple of weeks when the child became more comfortable that’s when she started to be a lot more like herself.
My friend had welcomed a really troubled teenager into her home and she started to bring more and more of her personality out. the teenager was rude, wouldn’t listen, would have music on really loud, would come home late go out with friends late. She would talk really loud on the mobile to her friends, most of the times the language would be very unpleasant. When the foster child would get told off for a certain thing, she would break things around the house.
This was a really troubling time for the family as a whole and the dedication for them to get past it and support the foster child so she can get to a better state was very inspiring. I asked if the fostering experience had put my friend off fostering and she didnt hesistate to say no. she said ‘i got into fostering because i wanted to help vulnerable children and give them a warm home and hot food on the plate and a loving family’. Although the child was difficult work she wouldnt change it for anything.
‘My goal is to make the world a better place by supporting one child at a time.’
That is a great statement to show that people who go into care for the right reasons will always find a way to see the greater good in helping children, whereas if your deriving factor was monetary gain then fostering would be a very short ‘career’.
